Members from various religious backgrounds convened at the RancheHouse last week to discuss the elements needed to create lasting peace.
Members from various religious backgrounds convened at the RancheHouse last week to discuss the elements needed to create lasting peace.
The tenth annual World Religions Conference held April 26 in Cochrane drew close to 100 audience members from different communities.
A panel of five speakers representing their own religious community used examples from scriptures, history and recent events to pinpoint how peace is not only established, but maintained.
Each panelist had 15 minutes to deliver their unique perspective, and from that stemmed four main themes.
People must come to an understanding
Romesh Anand spoke on unity in the history of India on behalf of a Hinduism perspective on lasting peace.
In one example, he referenced Alexander the Great who, despite the soldiers remaining in India attempting to conquer, left India with the message of peace.
"Over a million soldiers stayed on but he went back with the message of peace, that conquering doesn't help," Anand told the audience.
Justice should be established
David Lertzman spoke on the importance of reconciling with one another to help create peace on behalf of Judaism.
"Until we all achieve freedom and peace, it's not complete. So, I reflect as a Jew on my own Palestinian relatives, I can see there is an injustice," he said. "You can't have peace without justice.
A member of the audience from the Sikh community echoed Lerztman's sentiments. He said from his religion's background, to establish peace there must be fairness. He added that his religion practices openness and welcomes those who are not Sikh as well.
Reconciliation and forgiveness is important
Warren Harbeck, representing Christianity, made his point on creating peace despite wrongdoings of other. Harbeck made reference to the lauded officer responsible for peacefully arresting the accused driver of the van that killed 10 people in Toronto on April 23.
"He respected the person in spite of the evil," Harbeck said. "The fact is he became a vision for many of us. This is what any of us could do with the right training, the right patient awareness if we were in a difficult spot."
When it comes to an Islamic perspective on peace, Mansoo Anjum spoke on the importance of acknowledging your god and that there must be an inner peace with yourself to spread it with others.
Respect the harmony of science and religion
Neda Etema spoke from a Baha'i perspective, and highlighted the relationship between faith and the secular world.
"We create differences between us, we see ourselves as different colours but really we know that science has proven there is one single race on Earth and religious scripture teaches us that same thing. We all have two eyes, two ears, we walk with two feet. we are one people in reality," Etema said. "It's the differences we create that cause these wars and this bloodshed.
