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| Number 5 | April 2000 | |||
Contents
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The Montreal Group invites you to actively participate in the World Congress which will take place in the Palais des Congrès in Montreal in July (23-27) 2000, organized in the framework of the Alliance for a responsible and united world. We plan to interrogate ourselves on the economic and social disparities (North-South, rich-poor, man-woman, man-nature) which have marked the past centuries, and ours especially, and the means that would enable us to make a fresh start at the dawn of the third millennium. This multi-disciplinary congress will address itself to all the allies who wish to commit themselves to deep reflection upon what we have become and the possibility of adopting new values of responsibility and unity that could offer us, as individuals and as societies, a more human future. The broad themes of the Congress are: Preservation of living spaces as a step towards sustainable development; Personal Rights in the world; Economics; Education and culture; Family, society, city; Permanency and change of values. These themes will be developed in forty sections. The participants are invited to present a free message (maximum eight pages in double spacing) using one of the four languages of the Congress: French, English, Spanish, German. The texts accepted for presentation will be published in the Acts of the Congress. For further information: World Congress on Human co-existence, Venant Cauchy, President of C.O. The Kligenthal symposiums It’s a fact: the interest and the concern of diverse religions for environmental problems are progressively developing. Of course, some have always avowed special attention to Nature, especially to animals, but today the state of our Biosphere incites such fear as to its future that these concerns have to be expanded and firm and fundamental positions are required to check the degradation and impoverishment of our natural resources. It is clear that religions are not suitable for undertaking ecological, technical or socio-economical research. They however have a clear function and responsibility in the ethical dimension of all these problems and their repercussions on the development of man, societies and impact on future generations. Starting from the principle that the future of natural resources concerns and must call upon every "honest man from the 20th century", whatever be his religious, philosophical or spiritual convictions, Pax Christi tried to bring together representatives from all the cultural and spiritual streams to compare their approach, understanding and attitude in the face of the current challenges presented by the regressive evolution of the state of the planet. We were thus able to bring together, from the 25th to the 27th of October 1995, at the Klingenthal castle in the Alsace region of France, representatives of the following cultural families: Christianity (Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox), Judaism, Islam, Baha’ism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shintoism, aborigines of Central Australia, of Sarawak (Malaysia), Indians from Canada and the Amazonian basin, Lapps, African animists, Quechas (Incas) and rationalists, universalists. The work made it possible to arrive at the famous "Klingenthal Appeal" which was carried by CNN, Euronews, Euro Vision, Deutsche Welle, TSR... We quote: "Together, we ardently invite all willing men and women to:
We see it, there is no trace of preaching, everything has been thought out with detachment, with an obsessive desire for reciprocal understanding, thus perfectly integrating itself to the spirit and dynamism of the Alliance for a responsible and united world. Encouraged by the echo of this initiative, Pax Christi and its friends decided to programme - still in the same multi-cultural spirit - a series of more specific symposiums to lead to more concrete results. Thus the second symposium on Water took place in November 1977. The third symposium, devoted to the theme "Soils, culture and spirituality" took place in May 1998 so that its conclusions could be presented at the 16th World Congress for Soils Sciences in Montpellier (August 1998). The Soil campaign of the Alliance for a responsible and united world and Pax Christi were the initiators at the Congress (see Caravane 1, Sept 98). The fourth symposium (22 - 26 September 1999) had as its theme: "The tree and the forest: from cultural symbolism to... programmed agony?", a topic that is currently of pressing importance, especially in developing countries. Let us finally mention that the fifth Symposium from the 4th to the 8th of October 2000, will have as subject "animal and fauna: from the battery-reared chicken to the tiger under threat of extinction". These symposiums were organised by the "Safeguarding and management of creation" Commission of Pax Christi France, under the high patronage of the Secretary General of the European Council, thanks to generous support from the Goethe Foundation and Charles Leopold Mayer Foundation. Contact: Pax Christi, Jean Pierre Ribaud | |||
