36th IARF Congress, Day 1: Opening Ceremony

Description

The 36th IARF World Congress opens in Kolozsvár/Cluj-Napoca with an interfaith service centred on the theme “Faith in Reconciliation.” Religious leaders representing Shinto, Muslim, Zoroastrian, Hindu and several Christian traditions offer short prayers and sacred readings, joined by music from the Unitarian High School choir and the lighting of a chalice as a symbol of hope, peace and unity in diversity.

IARF President Robert Ince argues that reconciliation must go beyond ending armed conflict to rebuilding trust and learning to live again with former enemies. A representative of Romania’s Secretariat of State for Religious Affairs places contemporary religious freedom within Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Transylvanian legacy of the 1568 Edict of Torda. Bishop István Kovács of the Hungarian Unitarian Church welcomes participants to the historic “land of religious freedom” and presents reconciliation as a spiritual process beginning with the individual before extending to communities, societies and nations.