In the face of religiously motivated conflict and division, the need for the world’s religions to undertake a “critical and realistic self assessment” while making “overcoming violence in all its forms” an “urgent priority” was stressed by the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) moderator, Catholicos Aram I, speaking in Geneva today. In the face of religiously motivated conflict and division, the need for the world’s religions to undertake a “critical and realistic self assessment” while making “overcoming violence in all its forms” an “urgent priority” was stressed by the World Council of Churches’ (WCC) moderator, Catholicos Aram I, speaking in Geneva today.

His Holiness Aram I is head of the See of Cilicia of the Armenian Apostolic Church (Antelias, Lebanon) and has been moderator of the WCC Central Committee since 1991.

In a keynote speech opening the WCC-sponsored ‘Critical moment in interreligious dialogue’ conference being held at the Geneva Ecumenical Centre from 7-9 June 2005, Aram I emphasized that dialogue alone is not enough.

Religious communities are called to work together in order to move towards common action, he said. Moreover, in the midst of the “moral vacuum” of today’s globalized world, this active cooperation must be grounded in common values.

“Values, not interests, must be the guiding principles of interreligious collaboration”, Catholicos Aram I stressed.

The programme of religions’ common action starts by promoting mutual understanding and building peace with justice. While recognizing that they have always had their “own share in the emergence of the culture of violence,” and needed to deal with that, religions must firmly commit themselves “to peace and non-violence,” he emphasized.

The need for common action was also stressed by WCC general secretary the Rev Dr Samuel Kobia in welcoming the 130 conference participants from ten world religions.

After almost 35 years of involvement in dialogue, the Council has “come to realize the interreligious truth of an old ecumenical principle: that which we can do together we should not do separately,” he said.

Kobia also emphasized that, as a consequence, “interreligious relations and dialogue should no longer be at the margin of the WCC but at its centre. It has become a core issue for us and this conference is one way of saying it”.