Hindus have applauded Church of Sweden (Svenska kyrkan) for engaging youth in a project involving interfaith dialogue, calling it a “step in the right direction”.
Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, praised Church of Sweden’s remarkable stand in this regard: “Inter-religious dialogue focusing on issues related to ethics, values and aims in life are important for self understanding as well as for being a member of both local and global society”.
This project launched in Goteborg (Sweden), titled “Youth Engagement in a Multifaith Society”, aims at engaging young people of different faiths to learn about and learn from each other as agents in an increasingly diverse and globalised world.
Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, pointed out that serious and honest interfaith dialogue was the need of the hour. Religion was the most powerful, complex and far-reaching force in our society, so we must take it seriously. And we all knew that religion comprised much more than our own particular tradition/experience, Zed stressed.
Rajan Zed further says that in our shared pursuit for the truth, we can learn from one another and thus can arrive nearer to the truth. This dialogue may help us vanquish the stereotypes, prejudices, caricatures, etc., passed on to us from previous generations. As dialogue brings us reciprocal enrichment, we shall be spiritually richer than before the contact.
Church of Sweden, which is an Evangelical Lutheran community, is the national church and about 83 percent Swedes belong to it. Headed by Anders Wejryd, Archbishop of Uppsala, it has about 2, 225 parishes and 13 diocese. Ansgar, a French Benedictine monk, who arrived in Sweden in 829, was the first to preach the Christian gospel here.
Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about one billion adherents and moksha (liberation) is its ultimate goal.
Jan. 5, 2010