“Bound to Live Together. Faiths and Cultures in Dialogue”

Sant’Egidio. “The spirit of Assisi comes to Monaco”, announced last July 7 in Monaco card. Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of the city, in a press briefing, held together with representatives of the Community of Sant’Egidio, which for 25 years – since the Day of Prayer for Peace in Assisi in 1986 – promoted every year, meetings of dialogue and collaboration between leaders of Christian churches and of great world religions, picking up this legacy.

International Meeting of Prayer for Peace

The event will gather in September religious and political personalities from 60 countries worldwide.

It was warmly welcomed by the German authorities, both of Bavaria and of the federal government. It will be inaugurated by President Christian Wulff on September 11 – ten years after the tragedy in New York and Washington. Chancellor Angela Merkel will take floor in the Plenary Assembly on 12 September and several ministers will attend the conference at different times.

A large participation of religious leaders is expected.

Cardinals and bishops of the Catholic Church (form Germany the President of the Bishops’ Conference of Germany, Robert Zollitsch and many others; from the Departments of the Holy See Card. Kurt Koch, Card. Roger Etchegaray, Card. Leonardo Sandri, from different European cities Card. Sepe of Naples, Card. Philippe Barbarin of Lyon, Card. Péter Erdo of Budapest, Card. Lluís Martínez Sistach from Barcelona.

There will be distinguished representatives of the international and German evangelical and reformed world (the President of the EKD Nikolaus Schneider or Landesbischof Johannes Friedrich).

The Orthodox and Eastern Churches send prestigious delegations, some of which are at the highest level: His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Romania, Archbishop Chrysostomos II, the Primate of the Church of Cyprus, Patriarch Paulos, Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Patriarch Aram I of Cilicia of the Armenians. The Russian Orthodox Church, will be highly represented by a delegation led by His Eminence Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk, Exarch of Belarus.

An important sign of commitment to dialogue

And it is significant that even the Jewish and Islamic delegations will be numerous and qualified, an important sign of commitment to dialogue. Among the most eminent representatives, the Chief Rabbi of Israel Yona Metzger and the Chief Rabbi of Rome, Riccardo di Segni; from Cologne, Jaron Engelmeyer, Berl Lazar of the Russian Federation; Isak Haleve of Turkey.

On behalf of the Islamic world: Mohammed Rifaah al-Tahtawi, spokesman of  Egyptian Al-Azhar University, the President of the Islamic Center of New Delhi Wahiduddin Khan, President of the largest Islamic organization in Indonesia – and the world – The Nahdlatul Ulama, Said Aqil Siroj. Amongst them, the presence of Mustafa Ceric, Grand Mufti of Sarajevo and Mustafa Cagrici, the Grand Mufti of Istanbul.

There will be representatives of Japanese Buddhism, Sinhalese and cambodian, the ancient Indian religions, Jainism and parsismo including, traditional religions such as Shintoism.

Program: http://www.santegidio.org/index.php?pageID=2386&idLng=1064&res=1