At the first-ever G20 Religion Forum (R20) in Bali, Indonesia on 2-3 November, religious leaders called for global peace as they addressed humanitarian problems, including poverty, COVID-19, and the ongoing Russian-Ukraine war.
Their message urged infusing geopolitical and economic structures with moral and spiritual values. They agreed they must work together to solve world problems for a peaceful and cooperative world.
R20 is part of a series of events initiated under Indonesia’s G20 presidency. India will assume the G20 presidency from 1 December 2022 through 30 November 2023.
Among the featured speakers was Christian Krieger, president of the Conference of European Churches, who offered reflections during a plenary on “Historical Grievances, Truth-telling, Reconciliation and Forgiveness.”
Krieger’s remarks, entitled “The Legacy of Intra-Religious Conflict within Christianity: Lessons from the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre,” reflected on the tragic events of 24 August 1572, Saint Bartholomew’s Day and the following days, during which a total of more than 3,000 Protestants were brutally mutilated and murdered in Paris.
“How could the heirs of this bloody symbol of religious fanaticism, some of whom bear a memorial wound of victimhood and others who feel the weight of an embarrassing heritage unite their voices to finally write, the memory of the victims in the urban landscape of Paris 450 years after the events?” he asked. “This is the purpose of the contribution I have been asked to give.”
