Parliament of Worlds Religion 1999 Capetown SA

Author(s): Parliament of the World’s Religions
Publisher: USA Parliament of the Worlds Religions

Page 5

1999 PARLIAMENT OF THE WORLD S RELIGIONS
OMBRACING SOUTH AFRICA
A new day is dawning in South Africa. People of all races are emerging from the shadows of centuries of estrangement and injustice. For too long, when the world thought of South Africa, it thought of apartheid. The world now sees the South African experience as embodying the universal human yearning for freedom and dignity.
Today, South Africa is undergoing an unprecedented spiritual and societal renewal. While continuing the long and difficult work of confronting the past, people of good will are shaping a vision of a new century of peace and prosperity in which all might share.
Religion has always played a pivotal role in the South African story. Religious understanding of one sort underlay the attitudes that produced a devastating racial and social divide, But from religious wellsprings of a very different sort flowed the insight, courage, and energy that sustained the long and heroic struggle for transformation.
South Africa presents a wonderful opportunity to the religions of the world to come together, in a spirit of hope and possibility, at a critical moment in the nation's history and in the history of the world. As a result of its journey, South Africa symbolizes our best hopes for the future. At the same time the challenges and opportunities facing the world are starkly visible in South Africa. The beauty of this land, the exuberance of its people, the rhythms of daily life, and the legacy of a momentous moral and spiritual victory, offer a rich, inspiring setting for the 1999 Parliament of the World's Religions.
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