St. Petersburg, Russia - A regular session of the Northwest Russia Peace Council with participation of Ambassadors for Peace took place in St. Petersburg on March 3. A report about the recent Religious Youth Service project “St. Petersburg as a city of Interreligious Harmony” was presented to the audience.
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At the beginning, the participants were informed that in 2010 the UN General Assembly proclaimed the first week of February as the annual World Interfaith Harmony Week. In this connection, Konstantin Krylov, Secretary General of UPF-Russia, shared about how the week was observed in other nations. Then, the participants watched a video about the project in St. Petersburg. The audience could feel personally involved in the project as they watched the video about visits to the places of worship of different religions; they experienced the excitement of the interactive workshops and saw tangible results of the volunteer activity on the theme “Faith without deeds is dead.” They witnessed “The Podium of Glory” in which representatives of different religions shared about their religion’s approach to the issues of tolerance in relations with other faiths.
Finally, Tatyana Krasnosumova, Secretary General of UPF-Northwest Russia, reported about plans for the current year. She called upon all to actively participate in coming events.
At the end of the meeting, the participants communicated with each other in a friendly atmosphere and made plans for the future. Many of them shared their ideas about ways to successfully carry out the proposed plans. Especially active in expressing their opinions were Tatyana Kudryavtseva, chair of the association “School of Nature Island," and Boris Slivkin, representative of the Jewish sports organization“Makkabi.”