FOR the first time in Cyprus, 500 religious leaders, at least ten heads of state, and hundreds of representatives of different cultures, all in search of peace, will gather this weekend for a three-day conference.

Religions represented at the conference in Nicosia are Christianity (in its Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant variants), Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Jainism, Sikhism, Tenrikyo, Parsism and Shinto, among others.

High profile representatives will include five Cardinals from the Vatican, and a number from other countries, the Patriarche of Alexandria, senior members of the Patriarchates of Russia, Romania and Serbia and Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger
of Israel.

The heads of state of El Salvador, Montenegro, Malta, Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina will also attend, as will President Demetris Christofias. Dozens of intellectuals will also be at the conferernce which starts on Sunday and runs until Wednesday.

The conference is being organised by Sant’ Egidio, which has been organising meetings of dialogue since the late eighties among leaders of Christian Churches and World Religions to foster mutual knowledge and commitment to develop justice and peace.

Meeting have taken place in various European cities since 1986.

During the last meeting in Naples in October last year Pope Benedict XVI said: “Respecting the differences of religions, we are all called to work for peace and for an operating commitment to promote reconciliation among peoples.”

Sant’ Egidio said that over the last 21 years, “this pilgrimage of peace has created bonds of co-operation and friendship between men and women of religion, which have helped all their believers to understand each other and to give rise to the value of peace within their different religious traditions”.

During the Naples meeting, Archbishop Chrysostomos II, expressed his wish that the next meeting take place in Cyprus and the invitation was welcomed.

“Cyprus stands geographically and ideally as a bridge between the east and the west, the north and the south of the world,” said the statement from Sant’ Egidio.

“The choice of the place in this respect seems extremely appropriate to us: in the heart of the Eastern Mediterranean, a meeting place for the great Abrahamic religions, home of the Autocephalous Church of Cyprus, which was founded by the Apostle of the Nations Paul and the Apostles Barnabas and Mark. The meeting shall present a significant step for dialogue in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, on the frontiers of peace,” it added.

Topics for discussion will include ‘Peace in the Mediterranean: Faiths, Conflicts and the Challenge of Coexistence’, ‘Has Europe’s Time Come?’, ‘Earth and Humankind: a Dialogue of Faiths and Cultures’, ‘Xenophobia and Philoxenia: Welcoming the Stranger’, ‘Dialogue on the Middle East’, and ‘Islam and Christianity: a Complex and Multifaceted Relationship’.