Casina Pio IV, Vatican City—Ethics in Action convened for the first time to bring together representatives from major world religions in the global battle against violence, poverty and injustice.
Jennifer Stengaard Gross, founder of Blue Chip Foundation and EIA organizer, says the initial conference was a tremendous success.
“Our goal is to work toward the vision of positive peace. We’re mobilizing the scientific, academic, and international communities to reflect on the volatile tensions around the globe and what we can do about them,” says Gross of EIA’s mission.
A number of religious leaders—including Muhammad al-Sammak, doctor and Secretary General of the Islamic Christian National Dialogue Committee in Lebanon, and development practitioners like Kerry Kennedy, president of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organization — worked with representatives from universities and organizations across the globe to find practical resolutions that can guide the world away from war during the two-day conference.
“All the world’s major religions have a moral basis for peace. That’s what Ethics in Action is working toward; we want to retrieve that morality that seems to be lost in today’s world and create conditions that allow people to regain their dignity,” Gross says.
The consortium addressed climate change, mass migration caused by violence and environmental degradation, and corporate powers that prey on everyday people.
(Read EIA’s statement from this meeting here.)
Each global leader in attendance pledged to actively promote the virtues of positive peace and to collaborate with organizations that embody those values within their communities.
Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, who serves as an adviser to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, will urge the Secretary General to recommend the creation of an inter-religious contact group for the U.N. Security Council.
The EIA committee is currently developing a cross-cultural, inclusive strategy to change the narrative about Islam in the U.S. and Europe, as well as about minority communities in Islamic-majority countries.
The group also intends to push for the establishment of a fund to reduce military spending and divert those resources to finance sustainable development.
Echoing the call of many religious leaders, including Pope Paul IV in 1965 and Pope Francis in 2017, EIA aims to create a world free from nuclear weapons. The group also intends to raise awareness of the well-documented links between climate change and conflict and encourage full implementation of the Paris Agreement.
“I am with Pope Francis when he says that one of the forces we need to fight is indifference. There needs to be a spiritual revolution. The major religions of the world are strategically placed at local, national, and transnational levels to coordinate such a revolution,” says Gross.
To engage global citizens, EIA panelists agreed to promote non-violent conflict resolution, organize a joint campaign with Religions for Peace in Syria, and reach out to leaders of nuclear disarmament groups in support of their missions.
“We all have a moral imagination, and we need to exercise and expand it at this time more than ever. We need to work together to transmute fear and hatred into mercy and compassion. It’s our fundamental responsibility to respect and protect all of Creation, and strengthening the international law of peace can help us do that,” says Gross.
