From 11th to 13th September 2011 an international meeting Religion and Cultures in Dialogue took place with Chancellor of Germany - Angela Merkel present.
On the public forum on Identity in Globalized World polititians and spirituals from allover the world exchanged their views - Johan Jozef Bonny – roman catholic bishop from Belgium, Jean Clément Jeanbart – greco catholic archbishop from Syria, Miloš Klátik – chairman of the board for theology and ecumenical relationships of the World Lutheran Federation and the General Bishop of the ECAC in Slovakia, Mahammed Amine Smaili – Islamic theologian from the University of Rabat from Marocco, Bogdan Tataru – Cazaban, advisor to the president of Romania, Jaime Miranda – viceminister of foreign affairs from Salvador, Augusto Forti – vicepresident of Ideasolidarité from France and Joachim Herrmann – minister of interior in Bavaria.
Miloš Klátik stated in his speech Local Belonging – Universal Identities: „I believe that it would be a mistake for a christian from any country to shut himself and hide from the world. There are groups of people that are scattered all around the globe, and even then they work like a family. We can picture the christian church as such family. Evangel was spread into many corners of the world but its purpose is not only to spread but apart from message to every individual, it is here also to unite christians all around the world. This is a process that caused a birth of a big christian family.
In order to be a part of this process we need to be willing to become a part of this global family of christians. We have to be capable of perceiving a christian abroad as a brother or sister, we have to be able to feel as a part of this global christian church. This assumes that every single one of us possesses a global christian identity. This is not cosmopolitan identity, it is not an effort to globalize all that makes person a person, it is not an effort to steal one's own identity but an effort to widen one's horizon of christian way of thinking beyond boundaries of local belonging and thereby enhance one's spiritual life. I think that this kind of consensus of local and global christian identity is possible. Nevertheless, it is up to us to try and reach this consensus.“
The above mentioned event took place in this time also to commemorate the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in the USA. It is one of the meny events dedicated to the discussion about questions and issues of multiculturalism and national, cultural and spiritual identity in the globalized world.
Compiled from http://www.santegidio.org