Ecumenical Patriarchate Permanent Delegation to the World Council of Churches
The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew at the Assisi Meeting of the Community of Sant’Egidio
TΤhe
International Meeting “Thirst for Peace: Religions and cultures in
dialogue” takes place in Assisi from September 18 to 20, 2016.
Thirty
years after the historical Day of Prayer for Peace promoted by the late
Pope John Paul II on October 27, 1986, representatives of different
religions and cultures who believe that the “Spirit of Assisi” could
bring peace in a world wounded by violence and war, are meeting for
three days, for dialogue and prayer. Among the participants: His
Holiness the Pope of Rome Francis, His All Holiness the Ecumenical
Patriarch Bartholomew, Andrea Riccardi — founder of the Community of
Sant’Egidio and Olav Fykse Tveit — General Secretary of the World
Council of Churches.
In his address
at the opening session on September 18, His All Holiness underlined
that “as faith communities and religious leaders, we are obliged
constantly to remind people about the obligation and responsibility to
choose peace through dialogue. The pursuit, however, of dialogue and
peace calls for a radical reversal of what has become the normative way
of the world. It demands a transformation of values that are deeply
seeded in our heart and society. Transformation in the spiritual sense
is our only hope of breaking the cycle of violence and injustice”.
Along these 30 years the Spirit of Assisi reached many cities of the
world through the International Meetings “Men and Religions”, promoted
by the Community of Sant’Egidio in cooperation with local dioceses,
where the representatives of the religions of the world and people of
culture and politics meet together in dialogue and pray, building the
base for a future of peace.