View

Press Release: 6th meeting of the Elijah Board of World Religious Leaders

 

Forty religious leaders and scholars from around the globe, representing seven world religions, will be gathering at St Ottilien Monastery near Munich next week for the biannual meeting of the Elijah Board of World Religious Leaders.

Delegates include Imam Umar Ahmed Ilyasi, the religious and spiritual guide of two hundred million Indian Muslims; Rabbi David Rosen, the adviser to the Chief Rabbinate of Israel on relationships with the Vatican; Bhai Sahib Bhai Mohinder Singh, a leading volunteer and spiritual guide of Britain’s over 300,000-strong Sikh community; Metropolitan Nikitas Lulias senior member of the Greek Orthodox Church in the US; Bishop Josiah Idowu-Fearon, Anglican Archbishop of the Province of Kaduna, Nigeria; and Bishop Sahak Masalian, Dean of the Gevorkian Theological Seminary. Also represented are Hindus, Buddhists, Jains and, of course, Roman Catholics and other Christians.

They will spend the week examining the theme ‘Memory and Hope’ and their program will include grappling with difficult historical memories that can form barriers to good interfaith relations. Munich is a challenging site for such a discussion and the program will include a visit to Munich’s Memory Institute as well as Dachau Concentration Camp. The leaders are joined by scholars from their traditions from the Elijah Interfaith Academy, who have prepared academic papers that will provide the basis of the discussions the leaders will undertake.

The Elijah Interfaith Institute was founded in 1997 by Rabbi Dr Alon Goshen-Gottstein. This is the sixth meeting of the Board of World Religious Leaders. For more information visit our facebook page.

---