ARAM I: CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM SHOULD LOOK AT UNITED PROSPECT
Noyan Tapan
March 6, 2008
ANTILIAS, MARCH 6, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. A conference of
Christianity-Islam dialogue took place in Beirut on the initiative
of the Christian-Islam Commission of the Middle East on February
28. According to the information provided by the Cathedral of Antilias,
His Holiness Aram I, the Catholicos of All Armenians, was invited as
the main speaker of the conference.
More than 20 people were present at the conference, including
ambassadors, political scientists, heads of communities, directors
and lecturers of universities, specialists of Christian and Islamic
religions from the Middle East and European countries, as well as
Archbishop Sepuh Sargsian, the primate of the Armenian diocese of
Tehran, Bishop Gegham Khacherian, the primate of the Armenian diocese
of Lebanon, and Bishop Narek Aleemezian, the Head of the Interchurch
Relations Department.
His Holiness Patriarch touched upon the public values of the two
religions and the approaches towards moral understanding, stressing the
importance of the united work and cooperation for jointly withstanding
the current challenges.
"One should not only speak, sometimes they should listen to each
other. They should not only speak against each other, they should
speak to each other.
Christianity and Islam are to look at a united prospect, on the
tapestry of which hatred will be changed into respect, intolerance
into mutual confidence and self-isolation into one entity. They are
to live in a collective life, where, preserving the differences at
the same time, public values will be more spread and where working
jointly will be a public preoccupation and a process at the same time,
in which the two religions should take part," Aram I mentioned.