Action Proposals

Publisher:  Canadian Conference on Religion and World Peace, c/o WCRP Canada, Toronto, Canada
Year Published:  1980
Pages:  8pp   Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX2141

Abstract: 
These Action Proposals grew out of the Canadian Conference on Religion and World Peace, Nov. 9-11, 1980, initiated by the World Conference on Religion for Peace (WCRP) Canada. WCRP Canada is a chapter of an international organisation of the same name; its goals is interfaith dialogue for purposes of international peace and justice. Japanese Buddhists, influenced by Hiroshima-Nagasaki tragedy, played a key role in bringing WCRP into being. Disarmament has always been one of the group's key concerns.
Two hundred people participated in the September, 1980 conference; they came from many religious traditions: Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, Native Peoples, Sikhs and Zoroastrians.

The conference had as its purposes:

1) to alert Canadians to the magnitude of the current crises and the means of averting it;
2) to consider the dimensions of the current world crisis in the light of the spiritual resources (we represent);
3) to propose specific initiatives within the present reach of the government of Canada, religious institutions and individuals;
4) to arouse and enlist the commitment and participation of religious communities, local congregations and citizens in the urgency of working for peace.

The action proposals are outline in five categories:
a) religious bases for peace
b) education and studies for peace
c) putting our Canadian house in order
d) towards a Canadian foreign policy for peace
e) Third World and peace
f) Specific implementation.

Some of these specific implementations include:
i) working with peace initiatives already underway in Canada and internationally;
ii) inviting "Third World" representatives to participate in future meetings and action committees;
iii) urging the leaders of the various religious communities represented at the conference to meet with political leaders in Ottawa, Washington, and Moscow "to present the claims for humanity as contained in the goals and statements of this conference".