Post by Watchman on Jul 4, 2006 14:23:41 GMT -5
Moscow | July 02, 2006 7:36:19 PM IST
Ahead of the G-8 summit in St Petersburg later this month, a three-day world summit of religious leaders will be held in Moscow from tomorrow featuring the participation of over 100 leaders of many religions and denominations.
Calling the summit a historic event of unprecedented significant, head of the Moscow Patriarchate's Foreign Church Relations Department, Metropolitan Kiril of Smolensk and Kaliningrad told mediapersons today that for the first time ever, the event had been timed to coincide with a summit of the most influential nations.
''This is the new aspect of the event, proposed by Russia's Inter- Religious Council and backed by many religious communities,'' he said.
The initiative will allow representatives of religious communities to discuss important aspects of world development, and inform the G-8 leaders about the outcome of their discussion, he stressed.
''The leaders of the world's religious communities to meet in Moscow, will in fact propose initiating a serious global dialogue between political leaderships and religious communities,'' Metropolitan Kiril said.
Meanwhile, representatives of the leading Russian and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will meet here tomorrow and on Tuesday, Ella Pamfilova, the head of the presidential Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights Council, told Interfax news agency.
The forum is to be attended by more than 600 delegates, most of them representatives of major international and national non-governmental organizations, including representatives of the World Wild-life Fund, Amnesty International, International Helsinki Federation and Greenpeace, the officials of the Organizing Committee said.
The agenda includes issues, being addressed by the world community ahead of the G-8 St Petersburg summit, they pointed out.
The forum' roundtable conferences will examine problems pertaining to energy security, education, measures to combat AIDS, environmental protection and human rights.
Ahead of the G-8 summit in St Petersburg later this month, a three-day world summit of religious leaders will be held in Moscow from tomorrow featuring the participation of over 100 leaders of many religions and denominations.
Calling the summit a historic event of unprecedented significant, head of the Moscow Patriarchate's Foreign Church Relations Department, Metropolitan Kiril of Smolensk and Kaliningrad told mediapersons today that for the first time ever, the event had been timed to coincide with a summit of the most influential nations.
''This is the new aspect of the event, proposed by Russia's Inter- Religious Council and backed by many religious communities,'' he said.
The initiative will allow representatives of religious communities to discuss important aspects of world development, and inform the G-8 leaders about the outcome of their discussion, he stressed.
''The leaders of the world's religious communities to meet in Moscow, will in fact propose initiating a serious global dialogue between political leaderships and religious communities,'' Metropolitan Kiril said.
Meanwhile, representatives of the leading Russian and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will meet here tomorrow and on Tuesday, Ella Pamfilova, the head of the presidential Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights Council, told Interfax news agency.
The forum is to be attended by more than 600 delegates, most of them representatives of major international and national non-governmental organizations, including representatives of the World Wild-life Fund, Amnesty International, International Helsinki Federation and Greenpeace, the officials of the Organizing Committee said.
The agenda includes issues, being addressed by the world community ahead of the G-8 St Petersburg summit, they pointed out.
The forum' roundtable conferences will examine problems pertaining to energy security, education, measures to combat AIDS, environmental protection and human rights.