Honorable and Beloved Brothers and Friends,

The meeting of representatives of different cultural and religious traditions is indeed beautiful. Beautiful is also the ascertainment that the inherited “designations” for each other are but a product of either ignorance or of historical circumstances; and this ascertainment is a result of eh imminent personal relationships that have been cultivated. And it is also beautiful that the higher and deeper apprehension of the spiritual ideal of religious faith ostracizes the ugly views, upon which each side bases its accusations.

The sublime, and especially the mystic quest for God, eliminates the correlation of political and ethnic conflicts with religious faith.  It leads to the realization that he who loves God truly and selflessly understands the ecumenicity of humankind, the identity of its final destination, and the opposition toward the divine will for the intention of elevating a nation on the ruins of another.

For these reasons we do not speak against a healthy patriotism, which addresses the objective progress and growth of each one’s homeland and nation. We, however, place this type of patriotism within the space of noble endeavor and gentle competition, and away from envy and the destruction of the other, so that the ruins of the other will serve as the location of the construction of our own structure.

Every gentle religious soul attributes to God kind feelings and dispositions toward all people indiscriminately. For God is the most gentle of all, has unsurpassable goodness and does not discriminate against His children, like a capricious father does by considering some of his children as good, and others as bad. God surely differentiates those who error from those who don’t; those who love from those who are indifferent, or hateful; those who do good with zeal, from those who are either indifferent or do evil. Nevertheless, He embraces all His children with the same love and desires only the rectification and the progress of all.

The one true God, to Whom all the faithful of the monotheistic religions turn to and aim toward, can be gradually known depending on the cleanness of one’s heart. Subtle human hearts conceive the great love that God has for all as a necessary divine attribute. Since they do not desire evil for anyone, they realize that it is not only impossible, but it is unquestionable, that God does not desire evil for anyone. We see of course that those who walk on distorted paths, and not on straight ones, face or will face the unfortunate consequences of their chosen evil course. This, however, is not God’s harsh punishment, as we occasionally say, but God’s edification that is full of love; an edification that serves for their rectification until the moment of the final judgment when it will be time for all those things that justice commands to come about.

We, however, who love God and His prime will (for there cannot be a religion without love for God and His will), desire the application of His love, so that the correction of all will come about. Thus, there will be no need for the implementation of justice for those who stand uncorrected, not because of its abolition, but due to the shortcoming of those who stand uncorrected.

Is this a utopia? That is of no importance. What is important is that we desire this; that subsequently, our heart embraces all with the hope of salvation; and that through this we understand the extent of God’s goodness that desires this so much more than our own goodness can desire.

Practically speaking, this entails a calming attitude towards all, acceptance of all, wishing for all, fraternal feelings for all, and an ecumenicity that encompasses the entire humankind; the rejection of apartheid, intolerance, attitudes of superiority, exploitation, and injustice. And to the extent of achieving them all, what seemed to be only a utopia is transformed into a paradise-like reality on earth, an oasis in the desert of the contemporary egocentric and individualistic societies.

We, the religious leaders, who believe that God is the source of the water of life, ought to provide thirsty mankind with this divine water, and to plant as many spiritual oases as we can.

We therefore wish that we will be able to fulfill our duties, by adorning the earth with spiritual oases from which the refreshing and life-giving water of love, peace, and respect for one another will spring forth to all. Amen.