The Appeal for the XXII Ecumenical Day of Christian-Islamic Dialogue on Oct. 27, 2023 entitled “Guarding Creation by Building Peace” has been released.
The Day, which is also being celebrated this year in memory of Giovanni Sarubbi, one of the promoters of the Day and founder of the online periodical ildialogo.org, is an initiative that emerged out of concern over possible reactions to the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001. To the “clash of civilizations” theory elaborated by political scientist Samuel Huntington as a reading of the terrible event, Christian and Islamic men and women responded by proposing dialogue as the only possible future of humanity and the cosmos.
The celebration of the first Day, on the last Friday of Ramadan in 2002, has been followed by twenty others – celebrated since 2008 on the fixed date of October 27, to commemorate the 1986 Assisi Interfaith Meeting – and year after year the initiative has involved more and more groups, communities and associations that locally practice the “dialogue of life.”
This year, after emphasizing, in 2022, the need for disarmament in order to achieve peace, the Day’s National Promoting Committee, in light of Islamic and Christian sacred scriptures, the encyclical Laudato si’ and the Abu Dhabi Declaration, proposes a reflection on the human custody of creation. Current ecological changes – rising temperatures and seas, desertification, extreme weather events – show the negative impact of human actions – wars, pollution, extreme exploitation of resources – on the planet.
The Appeal reads, “Sixty years after the encyclical Pacem in Terris we are called and summoned to a disarmament of hearts, to an ecological conversion that renews our vocation to be custodians of God’s work. Religions, as well as politics, schools, and mass media, are responsible for an education for peace and care. We oppose the blessing of armies in the name of God. We oppose the diversion of funds from health and education to the military. We oppose the language of war that sees the other as an enemy. We call for the reconversion of the arms industry.”
In the conclusion, the promoters invite “all women and men of goodwill to organize initiatives on Oct. 27 to celebrate the XXII Ecumenical Day of Christian-Islamic Dialogue ‘Guarding Creation by Building Peace.’”
To express endorsements and communicate vos initiatives to the organization, write to the email address: redazione@ildialogo.org
We repeat those below the appeal. [Here is the appeal:] Guarding Creation by Building Peace
Winds of death are continuing to sweep over the world. Wars and guerrilla warfare fed by increasingly sophisticated and lethal weapons eliminate human and animal life, devastate cities and countryside, and cause famine. Exploitation and pollution of water, air, and soil cause droughts, floods, and landslides. The nuclear drift that is upon us would make the world a desert devoid of life. These are signs of the times that challenge men and women of every religion and every form of thought.
We, Christian and Muslim believers, lovers, and builders of peace, reaffirm that God’s plan for humanity is the custody of all creation, the sharing of common goods, and the conviviality of differences.
In the Quran, we read, “I will place Khalifa, that is, a vicar on earth” (Sura II:30). God places the human being as the custodian of creation so that he can serve it, guard it, love it, and receive benefits from it: the earth gives to the sky and the sky gives back to the earth. God does not place human beings as custodians of creation so that they may indiscriminately exploit its goods, waste food, and destroy biodiversity.
We also read in the Bible, “The Lord God took Adam and placed him in the garden of Eden, that he might cultivate it and take care of it” (Gen. 2:15).
In Laudato si Pope Francis writes, “Living the vocation of being custodians of God’s work is an essential part of a virtuous existence; it does not constitute something optional or even a secondary aspect of the Christian experience.”
Our faith is a source of ethics, prayer and daily orthopraxis, as the Document on Human Brotherhood for World Peace and Common Coexistence also reminds us: “Faith leads the believer to see in the other a brother to be supported and loved. From faith in God, who created the universe, creatures and all human beings – equal because of His Mercy -, the believer is called to express this human brotherhood, safeguarding creation and the whole universe and supporting every person, especially the neediest and poorest.”
Sixty years after the encyclical Pacem in Terris we are called and called again to a disarmament of hearts, to an ecological conversion that renews our vocation to be custodians of God’s work. Religions, as well as politics, schools, and mass media, are responsible for an education for peace and care. We oppose the blessing of armies in the name of God. We oppose the
diversion of funds from health and education to the military. We oppose the language of war that sees the other as an enemy. We call for a reconversion of the arms industry.
We invite all women and men of goodwill to organize initiatives on October 27 to celebrate the XXII Ecumenical Day of Christian-Islamic Dialogue “Guarding Creation by Building Peace.”
To express endorsements and communicate your initiatives to the organization, write to the email address: redazione@ildialogo.org
National Promoting Committee of the Ecumenical Day of Christian-Islamic Dialogue