Greetings from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill to the Participants of the R20 International Interreligious Forum “Religion as a Source of Solving Global Problems”

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ sent a greeting to the participants of the R20 international interreligious forum “Religion as a Source of Solving Global Problems”

To the participants in the R20 Religion Forum on Revealing and Nurturing Religion as a Source of Global Solutions

Dear brothers and sisters,
I wholeheartedly greet all of you who have assembled in Indonesia to take part in the R20 Religion Forum in a bid to address the problems facing various peoples these days. Regretfully, today the human community is confronted with many serious challenges: we are forced to be eyewitnesses to the mounting global confrontation between the world powers; we suffer from the effects of the economic and food crises and hear dangerous words of incitement to collective hatred against whole nations, religions and cultures.

Still pressing are the problems caused by the aftermaths of the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictive measures. Social injustice remains a deep wound on the body of the human society, and the recent decades have only made the situation worse. We should not forget that there is a necessity to protect God’s creation, that according to the Divine providence we are called to preserve and nurture it.

In my view, political means alone will hardly suffice to change the situation for the better. I believe that people of faith are able to play an important part in resolving these issues. The religious culture, which rests on the solid foundation of traditional spiritual and moral values, on the awareness of the special responsibility of human beings before God and neighbours, has an enormous peace-making and creative potential.

It is my hope that the concerted efforts of the religious leaders, experts, diplomats and journalists who have gathered these days on the Bali island to discuss the existing problems will help find the solutions and offer ways out the current international crisis. I wish you successful and fruitful work.

+KIRILL
PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA