At a Conference on Combating Intolerance and Discrimination on 22 October in Rome, Archbishop Emeritus Dr Anders Wejryd, current WCC president for Europe, spoke with a focus on the origins and solutions to discrimination based on religion and belief.
The conference is part of developing a comprehensive response in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, a forum for political dialogue on a wide range of security issues and a platform for joint action to improve the lives of individuals and communities.
Wejryd reflected that we all face the challenges of discrimination and violence based on religion and belief.
“For the sake of our continued discussion I clearly want to underline that atheism, just like religion, is a belief, not a provable fact,” he said. “Lived religion is so intertwined with individuals and their choices and traditional religion so intertwined with or part of culture that it is often hard to decide what is what.”
That is why, he said, we need to “develop the local, home-based dialogue between men, women and youth.”
All three Abrahamic religions see God as the creator and upholder of the universe, Wejryd continued. “God is a God for all, upon whom all are dependent, regardless of their beliefs,” he said. “Academic religious studies and research should be part of public higher education.”
Read full speech by Archbishop Emeritus Dr Anders Wejryd
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