The WCC is willing to offer its experience in this field, for example by sharing our results from the interreligious conference "A Critical Moment in Interreligous Relations and Dialogue: Thinking Together, Assessing the Present, and Imagining the Future" in June this year.
Your Excellency,
On behalf of the World Council of Churches, please allow me to express my admiration for your leadership role at a time when multilateralism and multilateral reflection, commitment and action is at risk and, at the same time, more needed than ever.
The World Council of Churches has worked closely with the United Nations from the very beginning. We will continue to offer our constructive critique and creative support. Among the first concerns raised by our representatives, already at the founding conference of the United Nations in San Francisco, was that the United Nations must be seen not just as an instrument of states, but also give expression to the aspirations of the world’s peoples.
The main role of the civil society is to bring the voice that is not necessarily heard through the normal political UN channels to the attention of those that have the power to change – in member states and in the UN system. Although the relation to civil society is not discussed in the reports we discuss in this letter, it is of utmost importance that those perspectives be present in the September Summit.
I very much appreciate the opportunity we have had to meet personally to discuss some of these issues. I would be most grateful if it would be possible for us to have our next meeting before the September Summit of the General Assembly.
Yours sincerely,
Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia
General Secretary
Pauline J. Chang
Christian Today Correspondent
