FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Two top officials of the Baptist World Alliance will join about 300 other religious leaders from around the world in Assisi, Italy, Oct. 27 for a Day of Reflection, Dialogue and Prayer for Peace and Justice in the World, initiated by Pope Benedict XVI.
BWA general secretary Neville Callam and John Upton, president of the global organization, will participate in the day-long event, which will include a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Francis, the 13th-century priest whose prayer for peace has become a staple of many Christian traditions.
Callam
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Upton
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“Pilgrims of Truth, Pilgrims of Peace,” the theme of the event, will draw representatives from most of the world’s Christian traditions, as well as delegations of Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Zoroastrians, Taoists and indigenous religions.
The gathering commemorates the 25th anniversary of a similar event organized in the same city by Pope John Paul II. That 1986 meeting was seen as a significant step in the Roman Catholic Church’s interreligious relations, but some Catholics criticized the common prayers as syncrenistic.
As a result, Vatican Radio said this year there “will be no praying together in public but rather time for individual prayer and silent meditation.” The religious representatives will commit themselves to praying and working for global peace, reported the Catholic Church’s official broadcasting service.
Among the representatives will be Archbishop Rowan Williams, leader of the worldwide Anglican communion; Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, a leader among Orthodox Christians; and Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches.
This year a handful of non-believers will be included, apparently at Pope Benedict’s request.
“It was this pope’s desire to invite some people, non–believers or at least who do not belong to any particular confession or religion …,” Melchior Sanchez de Toca, undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture, told Vatican Radio. “It may seem a contradiction, but you can find sometimes in non-believing people a spirituality which can help us to examine ourselves and grow in our spirituality.”
Pope Benedict recently returned from a visit to his native Germany, where his message to Protestants and other Christians was that all faiths have to work together to confront secularism, reported Religion News Service.
"The most urgent thing for ecumenicalism is, namely, that we can't allow the push of secularism to force us, almost without noticing, to lose sight of the major similarities that make us Christians, and which remain a gift and a challenge for us," the pope said Sept. 23 in Berlin.
For its part, the Baptist World Alliance has since its inception engaged in conversations with other Christian groups, as part of an assignment to improve understanding and cooperation between Baptists and other faith communities. Two rounds of talks have been held with Catholics — one in the mid-1980s and a second continuing initiative that began in 2006.
Last summer, the BWA announced it would begin preparatory conversations with representatives of both Orthodox Christianity and Pentecostal churches, aiming for eventual formal theological dialogue with both.
At the same time, a BWA commission said Baptists must continue to engage Muslims around the world in hopes of promoting “peaceful living together,” adding that developing a process by which Christians and Muslims can address and resolve issues of conflict is essential.
The BWA, based in suburban Washington, is a fellowship of more than 41 million baptized church members in 221 national and regional member conventions and unions. Callam has been general secretary since 2007. Upton, who is executive director of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, was elected to a five-year term as president in 2010.
Robert Dilday ([email protected]) is managing editor of the Religious Herald.