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Archbishop of Canterbury Speaks at UN Conference, Visits Alabama and Sewanee

Episcopal News Service. April 15, 1999 [99-039]

(ENS) Peace among nations is impossible without peace among major religions, Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey told about 1,000 people March 15 to conclude the Thanksgiving World Assembly.

"Religion is the missing dimension in statecraft today," Carey said. "We need a new dialogue between the secular and religious world."

The Thanksgiving World Assembly brought religious leaders from 33 nations to Dallas to kick off the United Nations' celebration of 2000: An International Year of Thanksgiving.

Speakers included Cardinal Francis Arinze of Nigeria, considered a potential papal candidate, Dr. Muzammil Husain Siddiqi, president of the Islamic Society of North America, and Dr. K.L. Seshagiri Rao, professor emeritus in the department of religious studies at the University of Virginia and one of the world's leading Hindu scholars.

Carey was the keynote speaker at closing ceremonies, which included a celebration of harvest festivals from around the world and a call to religious leaders to foster a sense of commonality in the next millennium.

False security

The archbishop said western secular thought, buttressed by the explosion of technology, offers a false security that's leading to social decay. "I question what kind of society is simply content with material wealth," Carey said. "And I question the hubris that often accompanies western thinking today."

Giving thanks on a continuous basis is the core value for virtually every major religion, Carey said. Technological advances are also a gift from God to his people, the archbishop said, listing ways a sense of gratitude helps us reach our full potential.

"A spirit of thanksgiving makes us tolerant of other people, faiths and beliefs and forces us to make room for others, especially minorities," Carey said. "Tolerance is written into the codes of all major religions. Giving thanks to God through regular prayer and worship allows us a more generous understanding of the world around us."

The archbishop described an incident when he was principal of Trinity College in Bristol, England.

"I had to discipline a fellow staff member whose behavior was far short of university standards," Carey said. "I got up that morning prepared to give him a very rough time. But as I walked up the hill I decided to think of him as an individual with very unique gifts -- and as someone who means well, in spite of some severe faults.

"I was no longer angry and vengeful. Instead, we discussed the pertinent issues, shook hands and left the room friends. A crisis was averted. I was still somewhat stern, but it was a warmer, kinder kind of stern. And we solved a significant problem."

Resilience of religious thought

Carey said he is always impressed by the resilience of true religious thought, which emphasizes an understanding of the faith of others.

"We've seen the death of Nazism and Communism, but we haven't seen the end of many conflicts based upon a poor understanding of religion that plays up ethnic and historical differences at the expense of thanksgiving," Carey said, citing the Middle East, Northern Ireland and Algeria as prime examples.

People should have the freedom of expression to change religious beliefs without fear of reprisal, the archbishop said. "A commitment to reciprocity should be at the core of our actions. We should share our religious experiences and support one another in our mutual quest for understanding."

A spirit of thanksgiving causes all religious people to condemn all atrocities, he said. "We must make room for common action and protest -- and we have a responsibility to listen to and understand each other, particularly among the great missionary faiths of Christianity and Islam. Sharing Jesus Christ also means listening to the other's story."

He argued that "noting the impressive common ground we all share will help us build a more just and peaceful world."

The archbishop called upon world religious leaders to make a creative contribution to the world. "The story of the 21st century will revolve around the ability of major religions to show that God is a God of love," he said "Giving thanks is a wonderful place to start."

The four-day assembly was sponsored by The Thanks-Giving Foundation, a non-profit agency based in Dallas and begun in 1964 to promote the thanksgiving tradition in the United States. It now encompasses an international focus.

Sir John Templeton, founder of Templeton Funds and the Templeton Prize, is president of The Thanks-Giving Foundation. The Templeton Prize was first awarded in 1974 to an unknown nun named Mother Teresa.

Doctorate from Sewanee

Before the conference in Dallas, Carey stopped at Sewanee's University of the South to accept an honorary doctor of divinity degree on March 12. Dean Guy Lytle of the School of Theology said that it was a reminder "that we are part of the worldwide Anglican Communion."

According to Lytle, Carey "powerfully urged young women and men to respond to God's call to the ordained ministry in these exciting times, and affirmed and challenged those already in seminary by telling the story of his own faith journey and ministry."

In addressing the role of universities in helping to change societies, Carey said that "new knowledge is often greeted by fear because it threatens established thinking. It asks questions and unsettles dull conformity. It introduces new assumptions and questions old ones. Universities should be an irritant to society, hotbeds of radical thinking, the grit in the oyster that may become a pearl. Universities remind us that our understanding and experience of our world are always provisional," Carey said.

Universities and churches are bound together in valuing transformation and an obligation to tradition, Carey added. "A university helps a society transcend itself in analyzing the past afresh and building on it." But he argued that "no university, any more than a church, is a slave to tradition but is always reflecting critically on the journey taken."

Careys in Alabama

The Careys also visited the Diocese of Alabama and the Cathedral Church of the Advent March 13-14, addressing the clergy of the diocese and the chapter of the cathedral and their spouses at a dinner given in his honor, and preached to overflow crowds.

Carey spoke with what was described as "clarity and compassion as one acquainted with and touched by the needs and sufferings of many Christians throughout the world, and with theological candor and courage as he outlined mission imperatives for the Church in the twenty-first century."

He listed:

  • Renewal of faith. "We must define a church not by what it looks like but by what it stands for, its message, its faith."
  • A more accessible faith. "Beware of erecting hurdles that some will find too high to clear...baptism, for example....I was grateful to God that when I was a baby my parents who did not go to church were not rejected by their minister....The Anglican Church took me in [at baptism] before I took it in."
  • Renewal of structures. "I've noticed a curious thing in my ministry: We apply two standards to Church life....To individuals we say, 'live by faith, trust in God, be adaptable, learn the importance of sacrifice.' We don't say that to our structures.... Structures too must be missionary minded."

Carey challenged his listeners to "risk being generous" in sharing the gospel with others and to openly welcome strangers into the church. "Don't put boundaries...around our Church," he said, "because so many people yearn for God but don't know his name." And he encouraged his hosts to "trust God and go for it," to "create community" and to "increasingly aim at becoming a seven-day-a-week church ministry to help people where they are. Mission without evangelism is social work and evangelism without mission is worthless."

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