The news that matter in Europe
The news that matter in Europe
INDOOR AND DRIVE-IN WORSHIP SERVICES
Bethesda United Methodist Church, 155 Main St., Preston. 9 a.m. contemporary service in Fellowship Hall; 10:15 a.m. traditional service in the sanctuary. Sundays. CDC guidelines followed. The Rev. Linda Pevey, pastor. …
COMECE Legal Affairs Commission addresses data protection and transparency policies
On Thursday 25 February 2021 the experts of the COMECE Legal Affairs Commission met online to exchange on EU and Member States’ legal developments affecting fundamental rights.
Under the chairmanship of H.E. Mgr. Theodorus C. M. Hoogenboom, legal advisors mandated by Bishops’ Conferences discussed with representatives of the European Commission on two of the most current EU dossiers.
With regard to the EU Directive on open data and re-use of public sector information and the proposed Data Governance Act, the COMECE Legal Affairs Commission focused on the protection of data related to Churches and religious communities’ activities held by public sector bodies. Furthermore, experts also examined the concept of data-sharing for altruistic purposes.
The dialogue with EU representatives centred on the reform of the EU Transparency Register and its mandatory nature. This reform derives from an interinstitutional agreement confirming the status quo on the exemption of Churches from the registration. COMECE will be involved in the forthcoming EU consultation on the revision of the structure of the Register.
Exchanges within the COMECE Commission were also devoted to an update on issues related to the application of the GDPR. The next meeting of the Legal Affairs Commission will take place on 17 September 2021 featuring non-discrimination policies and the EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights.
Car-B-Cue
The First Baptist Church of Jacksonville Beach is preparing for the Cadillac Kings to arrive in town for an afternoon of barbecue and fun Saturday, March 13, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Bar-B-Que by Buzzards will have a smoker onsite, and will serve a variety of smoked meats and side dishes for $12 per plate. There will also be a car show. For more information, contact Norm Dize at 904-338…
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<span class="date"><i class="icon-calendar"/> Mar 12, 2021</span>
<span class="meta-user"><i class="icon-user"/> <a href="https://www.buddhisttimes.news/author/shyamal/" title="Posts by Shyamal Sinha" rel="author" rel="nofollow">Shyamal Sinha</a></span>
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<span class="meta-comment last-meta"><span>Comments Off<span class="screen-reader-text"> on Donald Trump’s ‘Buddha Statues’, Selling for Over Rs 44,000, are a Hit on Chinese E-commerce Websites</span></span></span>
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By — BT Newsdesk
Donald Trump may not be the global newsmaker anymore after he handed the reins of American leadership to Joe Biden. But, that still didn’t stop a Chinese entrepreneur from carving out a statue of the former US President in a pose that can be remotely associated with the Republican leader. The statue looks like Trump sitting in a Buddha posture. The white-coloured ‘Trump-Buddha’ statue shows Trump sitting like Buddha, with his face lowered and hands resting together on his lap, maintaining a calm aura, with eyes shut. The statue has been listed on the Chinese e-commerce site Taobao. The larger sized statue of 4.6m is available at 3,999 yuan (Rs 44,707) and the smaller size of 1.6 meters has been priced at 999 yuan (Rs 11168).
The Xiamen-based seller drew the concept from Trump’s iconic slogan “Make America Great Again.” Speaking to state-owned publication Global Times, the seller from the Fujian province said that he wanted to incorporate the idea into Chinese products by trying to deliver a message: “Make your company great again.” The seller, an entrepreneurial furniture-seller, said that people have bought them just for fun. The company made 100 of them, and already dozens have been sold out.
“Trump can also be regarded as a representative of an era, and extreme egoism. Now the era has passed but I want the statue to remind me: Don’t be too Trump,” said a buyer to the Global Times.
The US-China relation had hit a new low under the Trump regime. Ahead of Joe Biden’s presidency, in 2020 China had called for a reset of its troubled ties with the US under the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden to rebuild mutual trust and end months of hostility between the world’s two largest economies. President Donald Trump’s four-years in power is regarded as the worst phase in US-China relations as the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) headed by President Xi Jinping struggled to deal with Washington under an unpredictable American leader. “The top priority is that both sides should work together to remove all kinds of disruptions and obstacles, and achieve a smooth transition in China-US relations,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said during a video meeting with business leaders from the US-China Business Council.
source – News18
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There are always political forces in any democracy whose views and values are outside democratic norms. History teaches that these forces grow, posing a threat to the nation itself, only if enabled by people who know better. While it is normative for politicians to concede cherished interests in exchange for political power, it is a balancing act. To concede too much is to enable extremism, and to enable extremism is to strengthen it.
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Paris, March 10, 2021 (AFP) – – French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Wednesday that the “forced sterilizations” and “massive detentions” of Uighurs in Chinese camps were “certified,” which Beijing denies.
“Forced sterilizations, sexual abuse in camps, disappearances, mass detentions, forced labour, destruction of cultural heritage, starting with places of worship, the supervision of the population, all this is attested,” he told the Senate.
According to studies by American and Australian institutes, at least one million Uighurs, a Turk-speaking and predominantly Muslim minority, have been interned in “camps” in Xinjiang (northwest).
Chinese authorities say they have built “professional training centres” to help people and keep them away from extremism in the region under heavy surveillance after Islamist attacks.
The head of French diplomacy once again called for “an impartial, independent and transparent mission of international experts to visit Xinjiang as soon as possible under the responsibility of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet”.
He also called for “greater vigilance” for French companies in the face of the risks of “serious violations of the fundamental rights” of Uighurs in the Chinese factories that employ them.
France “intends to uphold” China’s commitment to the International Labour Organization (ILO) convention against forced labour when the controversial investment agreement with the EU was concluded in December, Jean-Yves Le Drian insisted.
On 24 February, the French minister denounced China’s “institutionalized system of repression” against Uighur Muslims during an address to the UN Human Rights Coucil.
vl/dla/avz
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, is pictured in a 2019 file photo. Cardinal Tagle virtually delivered the annual Trócaire/St. Patrick’s College Lent lecture March 9, 2021. (CNS photo/Eloisa Lopez, Reuters)
March 10, 2021
Sarah Mac Donald
Catholic News Service
DUBLIN — Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, head of the Vatican’s evangelization congregation, has expressed concern over the “hijacking” of religion by populist leaders who sow division and exploit the anger of those who feel excluded.
Speaking after he delivered the 2021 Trócaire/St. Patrick’s College Maynooth annual Lenten lecture March 9 on “Caring for the Human Family and our Common Home,” the Filipino prelate warned, “There is a growing sense in the world today of divisiveness, and unfortunately religion is being used to further division; sometimes even within the same religious affiliation you have divisions.”
Referring to the recent rise of populist leaders, Cardinal Tagle described the phenomenon as “the return of the powerful big-boss-type of people,” some of whom “hijack religion.”
These so-called populist leaders know where the pockets of disgruntled people are, and they present themselves as messiahs, he said. They use religion as a “convenient way” of getting followers, he added.
The president of Caritas Internationalis noted that in the encyclical “Fratelli Tutti,” Pope Francis devoted several paragraphs to the matter of populist leaders who claim that they are defending the people, when in fact they are defending a certain group.
Speaking via Zoom from Rome, the cardinal stressed, “We need to study carefully why these leaders get followers; why do they become popular?”
He suggested that the pandemic could make the exclusion of people such as the poor and migrants worse, and that was why Caritas Internationalis had issued two documents calling for greater access to COVID-19 vaccines for the Global South.
“I hope this pandemic will teach us the lesson that we are really connected with one another and to the earth, and that what happens in one part of the world can have a universal impact. I hope we will grow in responsibility to others,” he said.
A close collaborator of Pope Francis, Cardinal Tagle said that although the pandemic may be restricting some exercise of the faith, it might also “lead to pastoral creativity, especially within families.”
Speaking to Catholic News Service, the Filipino prelate recognized that the pandemic has brought “a lot of suffering.”
The prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples admitted, “for us in the church, part of the suffering is that we want to provide pastoral help and pastoral guidance, but we cannot do it the way we were used to.”
However, he set the pandemic-related restrictions on worship in the context of the suffering of Christians banned from the practice of their faith. He said he had been inspired by Japan’s “hidden Christians.”
Recalling how they had kept their faith alive for 200 years, Cardinal Tagle highlighted how Japan banned Christianity in the 17th century, and when it reopened its doors to Christianity in the 19th century, the French missionaries who went to Nagasaki were surprised to discover Christians who had survived all those years without church structures.
“In the midst of restrictions, it’s the families, the laypeople, especially the mothers and the grandmothers, who passed on the faith. They were creative,” the cardinal said.
Acknowledging that the pandemic had disrupted parish life and the church’s usual way of delivering services and catechetical formation because of the restriction on movements, he said this offered an opportunity to identify those aspects of Christian life and church life that “we have not paid attention to sufficiently,” including “the role of the family in the transmission of the faith and the formation of families in the social teachings of the church.”
“In the past, the transmission of the faith, the teaching of prayers and the catechism happened in homes. It was the parents or the grandparents who did it.” But with the development of specialized ministries such as religious education and catechists, this had declined.
“With the lockdown, children could not be brought to Sunday school, and catechists and teachers could not do their usual work. Are parents equipped to form their families, their children, their grandchildren and each other in faith and mission?” he asked.
“I think that the pandemic has opened up possibilities for us, but it has also become a mirror showing us where have we been weak in terms of Christian formation.”
“This pandemic has led many churches and dioceses to reassess our usual ways of conducting mission and pastoral engagement. Even here in the Vatican, we are invited to reflect on what we call the ‘normal’ customary ways, to see how we can respond more adequately to the changing situation.” The mission does not stop, he said, and the question is “How do we do it in a changed situation?”
Cardinal Tagle said his Trócaire Lenten reflection was an attempt to bring together the themes of Pope Francis’s encyclicals, “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home,” and “Fratelli Tutti,” the call for universal social friendship.
“We see an intimate connection between the two encyclicals,” the cardinal said and noted Pope Francis’ warning that “the degradation of the ecology of our common home happens side by side with the degradation of human relationships. The disregard of human beings is manifested also in our disregard for our common home, which is God’s gift for all of us.”
He pointed out that many economic or political choices today are detrimental to the survival of the earth. “The irresponsible use of creation now prevents not only the transmission of a livable, habitable world to future generations, but it also violates a key element of the church’s social teaching, which is that the goods of the earth are for all and must be shared by all.”
A haredi mob stones two medical vehicles caught in their protest against government coronavirus restrictions, causing the driver of the first vehicle, an Arab Israeli medical worker, to lose control and crash into the crowd, killing a pedestrian. Fearing his life would be taken by a lynch mob, he tries to flee, but fortunately is saved by a cop before he could be torn to shreds by the mob. Welcome to Jerusalem, 2021, the second year of the plague.
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Anglican bishops across the world have signed a petition calling for an immediate halt to oil drilling in the Kavango Basin, in northern Namibia, in an area where elephants roam, by the Canadian Company ReConAfrica.
The drive for the petition began when Bishop Luke Pato alerted the Anglican Church that exploratory drilling for oil had commenced.
“The process has not been an open one, with Namibians waking up to a mining venture that has already been signed and settled. There are many questions to be answered,” said Pato, the World Council of Churches reported.
The search for oil and gas in the watershed of the world-famous, wildlife-rich Okavango Delta moved a step closer when a multimillion-dollar drilling rig from Houston, Texas, broke ground on the first test well in Namibia on Jan. 11, National Geographic reported.
Thirty-four Anglican bishops and three archbishops from around the world have signed the petition, which was delivered to the Namibian government at the Namibian Consulate in Cape Town, and at the headquarters of ReconAfrica in Vancouver, Canada.
ReconAfrica bought rights to drill for oil in more than 35,000 square kilometers of the Kavango Basin, an environmentally sensitive, protected area that supplies water to the Okavango Delta.
WORLD HERITAGE SITE
The basin is a World Heritage and Ramsar Wetland Site, a key biodiversity area and one of the seven natural wonders of Africa.
The region is home to the largest remaining population of African elephants, 400 species of birds and is a sanctuary for many other animals. It is protected under the protocol of the Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission.
“This exploration violates San rights under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous people,” reads the petition. “Water is a scarce and precious commodity in Namibia, the driest country south of the Sahara.”
“ReconAfrica holds a 100 percent interest in petroleum exploration rights in NW Botswana over the entire Kavango sedimentary basin in Botswana. This covers an area of 8,990 km2 (2.2 million acres) and entitles ReconAfrica to a 25-year production license over any commercial discovery,” the company says on its website.
The ReconAfrica website, says, “It is estimated that the oil generated in the basin could be billions of barrels.”
VULNERABLE TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Namibia is one of the countries’ most vulnerable to climate change, the petition notes.
“With almost unrivalled solar energy potential, extracting ‘billions of barrels of oil,’ makes no sense,” the petition notes. “Reducing carbon emissions is a global responsibility.”
The petition also cites an inadequate public participation process. “Concerns raised by local activists have been belittled and The Namibian, the national newspaper which broke the story, is being threatened with legal action,” the petition reads.
I notes that there has also been inadequate environmental impact assessment.
“Drilling in the Kavango Basin will fracture its geological structure and destroy the water system that supports this unique ecosystem and wildlife sanctuary,” reads the petition.
WCC acting general secretary Rev. Ioan Sauca expressed solidarity with the people of Namibia and with the Anglican community as they protest against damaging oil drilling in the Kavango Basin.
“We cannot sacrifice the rights of indigenous communities and destroy God’s gift of creation for oil,” said Sauca.
“If we are to meet the international goal of halving emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 , we must end our dependence on fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy systems now.”
National Geographic reported that the rig that arrived at the Namibian port of Walvis Bay in Janunary, is retrofitted for drilling in the desert, had arrived in December on the 600-foot-long transport ship Yellowstone, also laden with at least 23 massive trucks for pulling loads, bundles of drill pipe, and seismic testing systems on trucks with off-road tractor tires.
Africa’s largest remaining herd of savanna elephants moves through ReconAfrica’s license area.
The company plans to conduct a seismic survey, which biologists say could disrupt the sensitive animals.
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<span class="date"><i class="icon-calendar"/> Mar 10, 2021</span>
<span class="meta-user"><i class="icon-user"/> <a href="https://www.buddhisttimes.news/author/shyamal/" title="Posts by Shyamal Sinha" rel="author" rel="nofollow">Shyamal Sinha</a></span>
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<span class="meta-comment last-meta"><span>Comments Off<span class="screen-reader-text"> on India can be a hub of Buddhist studies</span></span></span>
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By — Shyamal Sinha
Nālandā is also about the gift of knowledge (ancient vidyā-dāna) that is meant to foster inspiration for a transformed global world rooted in cooperation and sharing — knowledge must be spread, shared, and not just compounded or kept for oneself alone. Since its ancient inception, Nālandā has played a major role in sharing and exchanging knowledge across the globe. The actors who played a major part in these ‘exchanges’ were the Buddhist monks or teachers (ācāryyas) Sūbhakarasiṁha , Nāgārjuna, Atīśa, Nāgajñāna (a disciple of Nāgārjuna), his pupil Vajrabodhi, Amoghavajra (from India), Vajrabodhi’s disciple Huiguo (from China), Samantabhadra (from India or Śrī Laṅkā), Huiguo’s pupil Bianhong (from Java), and Kūkai (from Japan). Being a veritable cradle of Buddhist and Hindu learning, it was Nālandā that attracted such a great number of influential teachers and students from around India and the world.
Also, over the last 20 to 30 years, many Buddhist relics have been found in many parts of India, and the government is trying to update the curriculum. “India has a natural heritage of Buddhism and can be made more meaningful by combining new information gathered from archaeological excavations. This builds interrelationships in today’s life. “It also helps,” said Bhagwati Prakash Sharma, Vice President of the University of Gautam Buddha in Noida.
There are also Buddhist followers in the United States, Europe and elsewhere in China, Sri Lanka and South east Asian countries, and we can encourage them to take these courses. “By reviewing the Buddhist curriculum, we can integrate all the beliefs of Buddhism that fascinate the world,” says Sharma.
Chinese factors
Recently, China has promoted Buddhist studies by portraying itself as a major center of Buddhism in Southeast Asia. Therefore, image-building exercises among all these Buddhist nations are important for projecting India as a real place for learning Buddhism.
“India has strong ties with Southeast Asian countries. By upgrading these courses to provide quality education, we can attract more international students,” says Sharma. Gautam Buddha University has 150 international students studying at different levels.
Anand Singh, Dean of the Faculty of International Relations at Nalanda University, said the government is seeking to connect with Buddhist nations, especially SAARC and ASEAN countries, by using Buddhist ties in foreign policy.
“The government has two purposes, one is to develop India as an educational center and the other is to counter China, which is trying to be the torch of the Buddhist nation,” Sunaina singh said. I will.
“The emphasis on Buddhist studies is part of Track II diplomacy, as it plays a major role in boosting the economy and culture that India wants to compete with China, if not dominant,” says Anand singh .
Nalanda tradition the skills imparted to students extend from rigorous reading of literary and philosophical texts to archaeological training. The School emphasizes the study of Buddhism and its adjacent religious traditions such as Sāṁkhya, Vedānta and Tantra in their full range of spiritual, regional, and cultural contexts. It studies Buddhism, Yoga, Meditation, and other religious traditions, their history, culture and ideas from a Religious Studies perspective which includes critically reflected and applied theory and methodology.
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Webinar: Religious and political implication of Pope Francis’ historic journey to Iraq
The Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) are pleased to invite you to join a webinar on the political and religious implications of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Journey to Iraq. The webinar, under the theme “You are all brothers” will take place on Monday 15 March 2021, from 18:00 to 19:30 (CET).
Pope Francis’ historic visit to Iraq was the first visit of a Pope to the homeland of Abraham. The visit was not only dedicated to the Christians living in the war-torn and fragile middle eastern country, but it was also a significant contribution to inter-religious dialogue in view of advancing peace and reconciliation in the region and globally.
Pope Francis’ journey to Iraq included a meeting with Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf, an interfaith prayer held in the ancient city of Ur and a prayer on the rubble of Mosul where seven years ago Daesh proclaimed its “caliphate”.
What will be the religious and political implications in Iraq and in the region? How these events will shape EU policies and international action? These and other questions will be at centre of the webinar, together with H. E. Mgr. Franz-Josef Overbeck (Vice President of COMECE), Fr. Jens Petzold (Monastery of the Virgin Mary in Sulaymaniyah) and Stefan von Kempis (Vatican News).
Monday 15 March 2021
18:00 – 19:30 CET
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Legislation which will substantially reform the teaching of religion and belief, including by requiring coverage of secularism as a key concept, has passed its final parliamentary vote in Wales.
The Senedd has today voted to pass a bill which provides the legal framework to introduce a new skills-based curriculum in all schools in Wales.
The National Secular Society, which has strongly lobbied ministers in Wales over curricular reform, has welcomed some significant changes introduced by the bill.
These include:
Ongoing NSS concerns
But the NSS also warned that the bill represented a missed opportunity in other regards, noting that:
NSS comment
NSS head of education Alastair Lichten said: “This landmark piece of legislation will give pupils across Wales access to a more objective way of learning about religion and belief.
“But government concessions will mean religious groups’ interests continue to enjoy a privileged input into this subject area – and to shape the way it’s taught in many faith schools.
“All children should be entitled to an impartial and pluralistic education on religion and belief. Policy makers across the UK should work to make this a reality.
“We also welcome the Welsh government’s move to make relationships and sexuality education statutory. This represents a significant step forward for children’s rights.”
Notes
India’s ruling BJP has asked Rutgers University to look into concerns raised by a Hindu student outfit about academic Audrey Truschke in the South Asian studies programme. She has been accused by the group of denigrating Hindu traditions through her academic research and comments.
The concerns against Truschke were highlighted on Tuesday by Vijay Chauthaiwale, a federal parliamentarian who heads the foreign policy cell of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) .
Associate Professor Truschke is the author of a book on Indian Muslim Emperor Aurangzeb. And she claims to have blocked more than 5,000 Twitter accounts in recent days after being sent vile and hateful Islamophobic messages on her social media account over her criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP government.
5,750 blocked accounts and counting.
In the last 3 days, I have endured an avalanche of hate speech, anti-Muslim sentiments, misogyny, violent threats, things endangering my family (yes, I have to leave that vague for safety reasons), and aggression towards my students.
Stop.
— Dr. Audrey Truschke (@AudreyTruschke) March 8, 2021
Truschke is no stranger to criticism from BJP supporters for her critical take on contentious issues such as India’s Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the Jammu and Kashmir situation, and “persecution” of Muslims under the current Indian government.
But the latest barrage of insults came after a Hindu student organisation at Rutgers University launched a signature campaign to highlight and express concern over Truschke’s “conduct”.
In another instance, the academic sparked indignation among many Hindus for calling Lord Rama a “mysogynistic pig” for his treatment of his wife Sita. Both Rama and Sita feature in the Hindu religious epic Ramayana and are epitomised as an ideal couple by millions of followers of Hinduism.
In its signature campaign, endorsed by over 5,000 people as of 8 March, Hindus on Campus accused Truschke of vilifying Hindu religious texts, spreading misinformation about Hindu culture encouraging the gang rape of women, and endorsing the burning of Hindu scriptures during her classes.
The student group further accused Truschke of encouraging “racism” against Hindus, not only in India but across the world.
Truschke entered the limelight after her 2017 book “Aurangzeb, The Man and The Myth” was released. She riled up many Hindu nationalists in India and across the world because she portrayed Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in a rather more favourable light than he has been shown in Indian history textbooks. Many of these books described the policies during his reign (1658-1707) as being responsible for promoting Islam in India at the expense of Hinduism.
Critics of Aurangzeb and Mughal rule in India, in general, are of the view that many ancient temples were razed and Indian customs erased during the reign of the Muslim rulers in India. This Islamic rule began around the 16th century and continued until the onset of British colonial rule in the mid-nineteenth century.
In her book, Truschke draws upon some historical evidence and documents to claim that Aurangzeb has been used as an “excuse” by the Hindu right to denigrate Muslims in India. The argument is disputed by many nationalists in India.
Her critical take on many Hindu traditions as well as many issues held dear to the BJP have triggered protests against her in the past. Truschke’s scheduled lecture in Hyderabad had to be called off following protests by local Hindu outfits over her controversial views during her India visit in 2018.
The Muslim known as Mustapha Abubakar took to Facebook to react strongly at the billboard which had celebrated rapper, DBlack in the midst of two ladies wearing bikinis while advertising a product sold by the company.
He wrote;
Can someone inform this company that the position of their advert on this billboard near our Central Mosque at Kanda is an insult to Islam and our values. Pls remove it.“
His post sparked serious deliberations on social media where he was lambasted for relating everything to religion. In other not to spark chaos, the company has reportedly taken off the image on the billboard.
See image below;
Before
Now
… quizzed about wife Cathy’s religion when he was signing for …
In India, an ancient religion known as Zoroastrianism is under threat.
There are fewer than 60,000 believers and their numbers are projected to fall further.
The UN says this is “alarming”, and warns of an “extinction in the not too distant future”.
The BBC’s global religion reporter Sodaba Haidare takes a look at whether matchmaking Zoroastrian couples, and helping them to have more children, can help keep this 3000-year-old religion alive in India.
Produced and directed by: Joanne Whalley
Camera: Saptarshi Roy
Graphic Design: Peter Caires
Executive Producer: Claire Williams
SANTIAGO, Chile — An audience of some 50,000 across Chile tuned in last week to watch a program that offered perspectives of the country’s Bahá’í community on how people can remain hopeful and respond constructively to the health crisis.
The 40-minute program was broadcast online by EMOL TV—one of Chile’s leading news outlets—in collaboration with the Chilean Association for Interreligious Dialogue (ADIR). The program is part of a series that began in April 2020 as the pandemic hit and provides the country’s faith communities an opportunity to offer messages of hope.
“Through this and an earlier broadcast last August,” says Luis Sandoval of Chile’s Bahá’í Office of External Affairs, “the Bahá’í community has tried to impart the same spirit that people feel when they pray together, whether in their homes, online with friends and neighbors, or with their compatriots under the roof of the Bahá’í House of Worship in Santiago.”
Omar Cortes of ADIR says, “In their contributions, the Bahá’í community has always left a very positive impression on the editors and audience of EMOL TV. This last broadcast by the Bahá’í community was appreciated for its attentive reflections, touching on the health and social crisis with wisdom.”
The most recent program, which has stimulated dialogue on spiritual themes among the many viewers, featured reflections from people across the country who are engaged in Bahá’í community-building endeavors.
Appearing in the broadcast, Veronica Oré, director of the Bahá’í House of Worship in Santiago, commented on the budding cooperation and mutual support among citizens, saying, “Rather than looking with sadness and hopelessness at what is happening, we can see a great opportunity emerging to better understand what it means for all segments of humanity to act as one.”
“The world is but one country,” she adds, referring to a well-known teaching of Bahá’u’lláh which continues, stating: “and mankind its citizens.”
Another speaker, a young person from Santiago, called on her fellow youth to arise and support one another, whether friends or strangers, in a unified response to the needs of society. Others shared insights from conversations in spaces created by the Office of External Affairs in which participants explore issues such as the extremes of wealth and poverty, equality between men and women, the protection of nature, and the economy.
Speaking about the series of broadcasts, Mr. Cortes of ADIR says, “We are grateful to EMOL TV because, as a secular media organization, it dared to venture into this type of broadcast.”
Mr. Sandoval comments further on the important role of the media in fostering a public dialogue on religion’s capacity to inspire hope. “Transmitting a potent message related to the reality of the country and the principles that show new ways of living, of organizing ourselves, and of relating to each other can contribute to the transformation of society for the welfare of all.”