Statement by Rev. Takeyasu Miyamoto

 

 

It is my great pleasure to send this message to the Workshop on Ethics Education for Children in the Nordic Countries, which has been made possible thanks to the efforts of Ms. Gunnel Borgegård, Ecumenical Secretary of the Ecumenical Institute for the Nordic Region, and Ms. Marta Palma, GNRC Coordinator for Europe. Let me start by expressing my heartfelt gratitude to the organizers, all participants, and to everyone else whose cooperation has made this workshop a reality. I would also like to express my sincere appreciation to the GNRC Coordinators, who have traveled from around the world to attend the workshop.

 

It is my strong belief that it is the mission of people of faith to provide a better environment for all children, regardless of nationality, ethnicity or religious tradition, in particular those who are vulnerable to the threats of a challenging environment. It is my conviction that the prayer of religious people, the utilization of best practices, and concrete actions to build a better environment for children will bring about tranquility for humankind, the purification of society, and ultimately, the realization of world peace. Because of this belief, I advocated and then inaugurated the Global Network of Religions for Children in 2000 with religious people around the world who share the same concern.

 

The Nordic countries, building on solidarity as a basic concept in the construction of society, have successfully created societies that care justly for all of their citizens, providing inspiration in the quest for the ideal human society to many people around the world. Filled with earnest wishes for world peace, the people of the Nordic countries have reached out to help solve conflicts in various parts of the world. I am grateful, and consider it very significant, that religious people of different faiths from the Nordic countries have gathered today to work together for the children of the region, and also to join us in striving to build a peaceful world of human dignity, especially for children, working in solidarity with other religious people from around the world, including the GNRC Coordinators and all the GNRC members in the regions they represent.

 

Spiritual decline and lack of attention to basic ethics is at the root of the increasing violence and injustice we see all around us today. I believe that our most urgent task is to give an opportunity to every child to grow up enjoying his or her full right to spiritual development. This is why, on behalf of the GNRC, I proposed and committed to the promotion of ethics education for children at the UN Special Session on Children in 2002. Today’s workshop is the first endeavor toward the implementation of ethics education for children to take place at the level of a world region. I sincerely hope that this workshop will be a fruitful one for every participant, and that it will become an important step toward greater dialogue and cooperation among people of faith for the well-being of the children of the Nordic countries, and indeed, all the children of the world.

 

May the blessing and wisdom of the Divine Presence be with you all.