Johannesburg, South Africa – In the midst of a world at war with itself, we often look to religion to restore order within ourselves, our homes and our government. This has been growing trend since antiquity.
South Africa is a country where freedom is given to all religions. This means that citizens of South Africa all have rights to believe their own faith. Majority of religions speak about seeking peace, but in reality, they hate each other and sometimes, take each other’s lives away. But ironically, the thread which ties those religions together is peace.
On 23rd June 2016, six religious leaders from various faiths gathered at the Beit Emanuel Progressive Synagogue in Johannesburg.
World Alliance of Religions’ Peace (WARP) Office began as a continuation of the Unity of Religion Agreement signed by over 700 religious leaders from across the globe at WARP Summit on September 2014 in South Korea.
After returning to their home countries, these leaders began to actively fulfill the pledge they made at the Summit by voluntarily establishing and hosting the WARP Office events in their communities with HWPL regional branches.
The topic of the scripture dialogue hosted by Heavenly Culture World Peace, Restoration of Light was “Creation from the beginning”.The participants of the event were faith leaders from Hinduism, Jewish faith, African Hebrew, Christianity, Sathya Sai and Hare Krishna.
African Hebrew representative, Oriel said, “For me, I believe that peace is the outgrowth of truth. We have to find the truth. We live in a reality that is well defined clearly so that there are ways to do things right and wrong, depending on what you are nurturing. If we want to achieve peace, there must be a way to do it, which is the truth. That is what I am hoping to find here.”
At the same time, in five different regions across Southern Africa scripture dialogues were taking shape under the same umbrella of peace. Through these scripture dialogues faith leaders from Port Elizabeth, Durban, Namibia and Zimbabwe are seeking for a sustainable solution for peace as many parts of the world are crying and praying for peace.
Meanwhile, HWPL, international peace organization registered under UN DPI (UN Department of Public Information) has set up 172 WARP Offices in 85 countries where faith leaders meet on a monthly basis to curb the influences of civil unrest. This is to stop 80% of wars in our current world occurred due to religious misinterpretations. HWPL identified that: it’s imperative that religious leaders from different background work together and unify as one in this process of crystallizing peace.