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Interreligious Association for Peace and Development
IAPD / UPF-Southern Cone: “Freedom of Worship and Reconciliation” Panel
Written by Miguel Werner, President, UPF-Argentina
Tuesday, October 12, 2021
Argentina—“Freedom of Worship and Reconciliation” was the title of the interfaith panel and testimonies of international marriages organized by the Interfaith Association for Peace and Development (IAPD)/UPF-Southern Cone (Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile and Argentina) on October 12, 2021. It was held on the Zoom platform and broadcast on the UPF-Argentina YouTube channel (1), and co-sponsored by the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) and the Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP) Southern Cone.
Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNQFnuosYlo
Dr. Simón Ferraboli, secretary general of UPF South America and president of UPF-Brazil, gave welcoming remarks, after which an introductory video was shown on the development of UPF’s global leadership areas (2). The moderators were Prof. Gloria Dantas, director of WFWP-Southern Cone, and Lic. Miguel Werner, president of UPF-Argentina.
“Marriage, Family and Blessing” was the topic on which Raúl Rey Banegas, president of UPF Uruguay and vice president of FFWPU Uruguay, spoke. In his audio-visual presentation, he highlighted the bond considered sacred by different religions, concluding with a review of the celebration of marriages, called “Blessing,” promoted by the founders of UPF since 1960 through the FFWPU.
The interreligious panel, in which “Freedom of Worship” was addressed from different aspects, was made up of Rabbi Samuel Szteinhendler (Chile), second vice president of the International Council of Christians and Jews (ICCJ), current chief rabbi of Cuba and Masorti Regional Director in Latin America; Bishop Sebastián Camacho (Uruguay), patriarch of the Ecumenical Apostolic Communion, Archbishop Primate of the Ancient Catholic Church of Río de la Plata in the World, member and advisor of various international human rights organizations and promoter of interreligious dialogue; Pastor Pablo Francisco Estigarribia (Paraguay), evangelical military chaplain on active duty at COMLOG, founder and president for several consecutive terms of the churches of the Open Bible South American Mission of Paraguay; and Dr. David Frol (Argentina), bishop of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, second vice president of the Argentine Council for Religious Freedom (CALIR) and a representative of IAPD in Argentina.
Emotional testimonies of marriage and family life, with photos as a backdrop, were presented by the intercultural and interreligious couples of Sergio Castellón (Argentina) and Rosetta Conti (Italy), respectively a member of the Board of Directors of FFWPU-Argentina and president of WFWP-Argentina; Ross Grange (USA) and Sachiko Ishida (Japan), president of UPF-Chile and president of WFWP-Chile, respectively; and Gustavo Giuliano (Argentina), professor at the Nihon Gakko University of Paraguay, and Roswitha Dueck (Paraguay), international vice president of the WFWP in Latin America.
At the end, Prof. Félix Coronel Fariña, secretary general of UPF-Southern Cone and Paraguay, thanked the exhibitors, special guests and participants.
The meeting was enlivened by a recorded artistic number, “Mundo de Paz,” performed by Aylín Rodríguez, Thomas Dantas and Marco Castellón, and a song with lyrics and music by Carlos Varga, which in one of his stanzas sums up a common desire and dream expressed at the meeting: “When all the races of the world are embraced, / when all nations feel like sisters; / when there are no borders, or hatred, or wars, / when human triumph is peace.”
Quotes:
1) Panel recording “Freedom of Worship and Reconciliation” IAPD / UPF Southern Cone 10-12-2022:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNQFnuosYlo
2) Video introduction to UPF leadership areas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrYGSM0sN5Q
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