“Those who come after us should enjoy the peace, fellowship, and wholeness of life that we enjoy today,” reads the message from students of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions. “We join together in offering an invitation towards reflection and repentance, and further invite others to join us in renewing our efforts towards healing between our communities, towards facilitating wholeness of life for the most vulnerable, and towards living in such a way that the natural world is sustained for future generations.”
The message notes that human beings were made together with an aspiration towards complete health and wholeness of life. “This means not only mental and physical health, but also a state of spiritual, economic, political, and social wellbeing,” reads the message. “We further recognise that the meaning of health and wholeness of life may be differ between people.”
At the same time, suffering is part of the human condition, the message acknowledges. “Particular attention should be drawn towards the historical and present treatment of the ill and people with disabilities,” reads the message. “Every human being, irrespective of their physical and mental health, possesses the fullness of human dignity and is of absolute moral worth.”
Despite this, the message notes, illness has been conflated with sin, and the students “lovingly call on all nations, faith groups, and international actors to work together to pursue health and wholeness for all.”
Specifically, the graduates call for all UN Member States to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child. “We encourage faith traditions and faith leaders to reflect upon theologies in which moral character has been tied to sickness or health status and to work towards new theological understandings of the nature of health and its absence,” reads the message. “Faith communities should be advocates for accessible healthcare throughout the world, for access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation, and for an approach to healthcare that emphasises the needs of the impoverished and marginalised.”
Message from the students of the 2023 CAS in Interreligious Studies