Source: Spero News/Ecumenical News International
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=15854&t=UK+Rabbi+says+religions+need+to+pull+together
Addressing more than 600 of the world's Anglican bishops, Britain's chief rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks has appealed to Jews and Christians to forge common cause and reach out to other people in a world dominated by politics and economics.
"Though we do not share a faith, we surely share a fate," said Sacks in his speech on 28 July, on what is believed to be the first occasion a chief rabbi has addressed the once-every-10-years gathering of Anglican bishops called the Lambeth Conference. "Whatever our faith or lack of faith, hunger still hurts, disease still strikes, poverty still disfigures, and hate still kills," Sacks told the bishops.
He said that faith brings a "covenantal relationship" of cooperation to a world governed by economics and politics, which were based, he believed, on a logic of competition.
"If there is only competition and not co-operation, if there is only the State and the market and no covenantal relationships, society will not survive," said Sacks. Still, he noted, "What is the face religion all too often shows to the world? Conflict between faiths, and sometimes within faiths."
The Jewish leader said that globalisation and new information technologies were fragmenting the world, and creating "ever-smaller sects of the like-minded". At the same time, "globalisation is also thrusting us together as never before" in the face of challenges such as the environment, political conflict and poverty.
Answering questions after his address, the Jewish leader appealed to the worldwide Anglican Communion, which is embroiled in strife about homosexuality in the church, to "pull together for the future". He said, "Your ability to hold together in a world driving us apart is your unique contribution."