Medan, Indonesia, 21.08.2014.
At its 2014 meeting, the LWF Council approved the “Universal Code of Conduct on Holy Sites”. This document, drawn up in consultation with religious leaders and experts of many of the world’s faiths, sets out ten provisions on the cultivation, preservation, accessibility of holy sites and the prevention of conflicts at them throughout the world. The recommendations include how to act at sites that are holy to different faiths, as well as in cases of expropriation and nationalisation. The Council also encouraged member churches to support such initiatives in the local context and called on the UN to adopt a resolution in a similar spirit.
The adoption of this statement was proposed by LWF President Bishop Dr. Munib A. Younan. “We constantly find that many holy places in the world are under attack for both political and religious reasons,” said Younan, who is also Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. “We are shocked and at a loss as to why these holy places have become a legitimate target during conflicts. They should all be a place to praise, meditate, pray and draw closer to God, who sends us into the world to be pilgrims of justice, peace and reconciliation.”
Overcoming past differences in Canada
Council adviser Cindy Halmarson, Bishop of the Saskatchewan Synod of Canada, shared an example of how different groups of believers use one holy site.
For centuries the prairie province was inhabited by Indigenous First Nations such as the Young Chippewayan. In 1876, with the signing of Treaty 6, land was set aside for a reserve, but due to various circumstances the group was dispersed and they settled in different places. Later the Canadian government took the reserve back and opened it for settlement. Stoney Knoll, a hill from which the plains and wheat fields between the North and South Saskatchewan Rivers can be seen, has been holy land for the Young Chippewayan. It has a long history as a place where First Nations people gathered for ceremonies and prayer.
When the land was settled by Lutheran immigrants at the end of the 19th century, they chose this hill as the ideal place to build their place of worship – a church and a cemetery. It took more than a hundred years for the three parties to come together and agree on a use of the holy place common to all. In 2006 the Lutherans, Mennonites and Young Chippewayan signed a memorandum of understanding in a traditional ceremony. The First Nations tribe pledged to respect the fact that the Christian congregations are the present owners of this land, while the Mennonites and Lutherans promised to support the Young Chippewayan’s unwavering demand for compensation for the land taken away 130 years earlier.
Stoney Knoll, a place of interreligious dispute, now bears witness to interreligious relations among Protestants and Canada’s First Nations.
report prepared based on information provided by the LWF http://www.lutheranworld.org
Translated from English by LELBĀL pastor Ieva Puriņa
Proofreader Mag. Theol. Milda Klampe