One of the most distinctive things about these seminars has been the experience of sharing the study of each other’s sacred text. Because when that happens, I meet the other person not as a scholar, not as the representative of some alien set of commitments, but as someone seeking to open their mind and their heart to the self communication of God. And to meet another person in that light and in that way is to meet them at a very deep level. That is how we have sought to approach our business and that has been, I am sure participants in the seminar would agree, a distinctive aspect of how we work together. We’ve not sought to issue communiqués or come to conclusions but to inform ourselves and to ask God to help us grow through the experience of meeting, in trust – and perhaps a very ambitious trust – that as we seek to grow and to learn and to open our minds and hearts to God then something around us will begin to shift and develop as well in the various contexts in which we work.
YouTube video is expected later.
See, also, the transcript of his press conference. An excerpt:
Reporter: I personally don’t see the link; how does religion come in with the environment? What are you expecting to hear?
Archbishop Oh, very much so; religious people believe that our physical environment is created by God and therefore deserves respect. The question is ‘how do we relate to our material environment in such a way that we display justice and reverence towards it?’ That’s a profoundly religious issue and without that dimension then our dealing with the ecological crisis will be thinner and much less adequate.
On the environment, there also this separate story: European Church leaders deplore missed environmental opportunities?.