The people of the world no longer can afford to let religion and religious leaders divide them, former Secretary of State and U.N. Representative Madeleine Korbel Albright told the annual gathering of the Consortium of Endowed Episcopal Parishes in New York.
The underlying problem is how to harness religion’s unifying potential and block its tendency to divide people and nations against themselves and others, she said, comparing the challenge to that of doing brain surgery. “It is a necessary task, but it can be fatal if not done well.”
The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, forced the world to look at the role that religion plays in politics, foreign policy and everyday life, Albright said. It is a “trend that was lying in plain sight” that our society can no longer ignore.
She called for all religions and nations to set domestic and foreign policies based on basic principles of valuing individual life and seeking justice for all, which she argued are at the heart of all religious belief.
Albright, noting that the United States is last among developed nations in foreign aid giving, said more avoidable deaths in the world result from causes other than terrorism. Strengthening the divide between “people of plenty and people with plenty of loss of hope” helps to breed terrorism, she said.
Asked after her speech to comment on the statement from the Anglican Communion’s primates that the Episcopal Church should voluntarily absent itself for the next three years from the Anglican Consultative Council, Albright said she didn’t want to wade into international Anglican politics. But she noted that her diplomatic stance always had been one of engagement.
“You cannot get your point across if you are not there,” she said. The consortium, which met in February, is a group of more than 100 parishes, each with an endowment of more than $1 million. Its goal is to foster the development and use of endowments for mission and ministry.
Tutu addresses conference
A sustained round of applause greeted retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa as he thanked the representatives of endowed parishes for their role in replacing oppression with Christ’s abundance.
“God is saying to you, please help me turn all kinds of wilderness into glorious gardens, because in God's world today, the fields are covered with weeds and tears of oppression and injustice of abuse and exploitation," he said. The Nobel Peace Prize-winner, renowned for his anti-apartheid activism, said God wants to change it into lush fields of freedom, justice, compassion and caring.
He thanked parishes for their support of the Desmond Tutu Centre for Peace in Cape Town, South Africa, that primarily works to apply the experience of South Africans, including Tutu, to inspire a new generation of visionary peace builders.
“There are many great people out there in this wonderful community that is the Episcopal Church,” Tutu said. “You are among those who said no to war, to the erosion of the illegal rights. Many, many, many of you cared enough, and we want to thank you for that.”
