More than 40 representatives of the world's religions will meet at the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting 2002, held at New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel from January 31 to February 4. The Religious Leaders and Experts group will seek to confront some of the challenges facing the world in the aftermath of the tragic events of September 11.

A smaller number of religious leaders participated in last year's meeting in Davos, Switzerland. At the request of those who attended, religious leaders will be fully integrated into the program at this year's meeting, with the hope that closer ties between and among the major faiths will be created.

"It is clear that the world's religions play a central role in societies around the world," said Klaus Schwab, president of the World Economic Forum. "We believe that religious leaders can make an invaluable contribution to our multi-stakeholder dialogue as we address the major challenges on the global agenda," he said.

Work with stakeholders

The Religious Leaders and Experts group will explore ways the world's religions--and religious leaders--can work together with other stakeholders in society to advance the public good.

Issues under discussion include as the role of religion in using moral resources internationally to build a genuine culture of dialogue, searching out common values to bridge divides among communities; and addressing the priority issues on the global agenda. Additionally, the issue of bridging cultural and religious divides will be one of the six major issues addressed by all of the participants, and religious and cultural leaders will be asked to join in these discussions and will be integrated into workshops related to this theme.

Special attention will be paid to the conflicts in the Middle East, Eurasia, Northern Ireland and other global hot spots. In each session and workshop, the Religious Leaders and Experts will be asked to consider ways the world's principal religions can contribute to conflict resolution and political reconciliation.

Anglican participants in the meeting include George L. Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury; Frank Griswold, Presiding Bishop and Primate of the Episcopal Church; Njongonkulu Ndungane, Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa; John M. Templeton, president, John Templeton Foundation; and Desmond M. Tutu, archbishop emeritus, South Africa.

Nine-point program

At last year's annual meeting, the assembled religious leaders endorsed a nine-point program designed to bring the moral authority of religion to the global agenda. The program called for initiating and continuing dialogue between leaders in religion, business, politics and civil society about the issues of globalization and its effects on humanity. "Partly because spiritual values have not been given due consideration, globalization has produced environmental degradation, sharpened disparities between 'have' and 'have-nots,' and thereby diverted national priorities away from basic services and threatened to homogenize local traditions into a global consumerist culture," the statement said. "…Our goal is to inspire a spirit of universalism while respecting the integrity of particular traditions."

The World Economic Forum, based in Geneva, Switzerland, is an independent organization, funded by the contributions of 1,000 of the world's foremost corporations, which serves its members and society by creating partnerships between and among business, political, intellectual and other leaders of society to define, discuss and advance key issues on the global agenda.

Article from: ENS by the Rev Jan Nunley, deputy director of Episcopal News Service