Geneva/Rome, 15 October (ENI)–The head of the World Council of Churches, the Rev. Samuel Kobia, has welcomed an open letter by 138 Muslim scholars urging Christians and Muslims to seek common ground and he has said the Geneva-based WCC is ready to help
‘It is significant in that it is signed by such a large group of Muslim leaders and scholars from around the world, which makes it unprecedented,’ WCC general secretary Kobia said in 15 October comments to Ecumenical News International. ‘Such a rare unity of purpose gives great hope as to what people of faith can achieve together.’
The Muslim document made public on 11 October was addressed to world Christian leaders, including Pope Benedict XVI and Kobia. It said the world could not be at peace if Muslims and Christians were not at peace.
‘The timing of this letter is also important. Today all of humanity is looking to religious leaders for guidance as to how to respond to the situation of violence in the world,’ said Kobia, a Methodist from Kenya.
The WCC groups 347 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110 countries. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member but works with the WCC on some programmes.
‘The WCC is ready to cooperate with those who have sent this letter by participating in putting together a concrete process to implement what is being suggested,’ said Kobia.
French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the president of Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, described the Muslim initiative as ‘very interesting’, noting that its signatories included representatives of various streams of Islam, including Sunni and Shiite Muslims.
‘I would like to say that this represents a very encouraging signal, because it shows that good will and dialogue are able to overcome prejudices,’ said Tauran on 12 October.
The letter was also addressed to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos I and other Orthodox church leaders, as well as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and the leaders of world groupings of Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist and Reformed Christians.
The president and the general secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches released a joint 15 October letter to the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, a non-governmental organisation based in Jordan which organized the Muslim statement
‘Your call is very timely and we agree that people of faith have the capacity, and indeed have a responsibility to draw from the resources of our different faith traditions to work together for peace, in a world in which religious sentiments have been wrongly used to foment conflict and war,’ said WARC president the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick and general secretary the Rev. Setri Nyomi.
Bishop Mark Hanson, the president of the Lutheran World Federation, said the Muslim letter ‘attests to both the love of God and our shared heritage of true hospitality to one’s neighbour’.
He said, ‘I encourage everyone everywhere to read the beauty of these passages found in the sacred texts of the Abrahamic faiths, which signify God’s vision for how and whom we love in a broken world. This common vision for Jews, Muslims, and Christians signifies fidelity and fellowship in a world where conflict offends our common heritage as children of God.’
