The VI Session of the Secretariat of the Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions presided over by H.E. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Head of the Secretariat of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, Chairman of the Senate of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, was held on September 18-19, 2007.
Participants to the Session were:
Rapil Zhoshybayev - Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan;
Eraly Togzhanov - Chairman of the Committee on Religious Affairs of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan;
Doulat Kuanyshev - Ambassador at Large, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
REPRESENTATIVES OF ISLAM
Sheikh Ali Abdel Baki Shehata - Secretary General on Islamic Studies, Al-Azhar University, Egypt;
Muhammad Mahmoud al-Sakkar - Adviser, Muslim World League, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia;
Majed Abdulaziz Alturki - Advisor of the Minister of Islamic Affairs, Waqfs and Propaganda of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia;
Mohamed Abdel Ghani Morsi Shama - Adviser to Minister of Awqafs and Islamic Affairs of the Arab Republic of Egypt;
Seyed Mohammad Javad Vazerifard- Deputy Director of the Culture and Islamic Relations for Research of Organization, Iran;
Rosy Munir - Deputy Chairman of the Nadhlatul Ulama of the Muslim Organization of Indonesia;
Ibrahim Ali Rabu - Special Representative of Secretary General of the World Association of Islamic Appeal, Libya;
Mohammad Umar Gautam - Professor, Department of Islamic Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia University, Director of the Markazul Maarif Educational Center, India;
Muhammad Ubeid Al-Mazrui - Head of the Mosque Department of the General Agency for Islamic Affairs and Waqfs, The United Arab Emirates;
Kalizhan Zankoyev - Head Imam, Nur-Astana Central Mosque, representative of Ecclesiastic Directorate of Muslims of Kazakhstan.
REPRESENTATIVES OF CHRISTIANITY
Khaled Akasheh- Head of the Department of Islamic Affairs of the Council for Interreligious Dialogue of the Holy See, Vatican;
Alexander Vasyutin - Priest, Department on External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchy;
Yuri Novgorodov - Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Kazakhstan, representative of the World Lutheran Federation;
Marcos Hovhannisyan - Bishop, Gegharkunik diocese.
REPRESENTATIVES OF BUDDHISM
Wang Li - Employee of the International Department of the the Buddhist Association of China;
Pra Darmokosojarn - Rector, Maha Сhulalongkorn Raj Vidyalaya University, Thailand;
Yang Ki Hoong - Representative in Central Asia (based in Tashkent) of the Chogechong Buddhist Organization.
Khunkhur Byambajav - Da Lama, Center of Mongolian Buddhists Gandantegchenling Monastery.
REPRESENTATIVES OF JUDAISM
Elkana Holzer - Representative of the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, Israel;
Meir Danino - Representative of the Sephardic Chief Rabbi, Israel.
REPRESENTATIVE OF SHINTOISM
Katsuji Iwahashi - Senior specialist of the Department of International Cooperation of the Association of Shinto Shrine, Japan.
REPRESENTATIVE OF TAOISM
Yin Zhihua - Deputy General Editor of the Zhongguo Daojiao magazine, employee of the Chinese Taoist Association.
REPRESENTATIVE OF HINDUISM
Kala Dhananjay Acharya - Director of the Research Institute for Indian Culture "Somaiya Bharatiya Sanskriti Peetham", India.
REPRESENTATIVE OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
Stein Villumstad - Deputy Secretary General of the World Religion for Peace Conference (United States Cultural and Islamic Relations Organization for Research).
INVITED GUESTS
Tomasz Peta - Archbishop of Astana, Roman Catholic Church;
Archimandrite Serapion - Deputy Metropolitan of Astana and Almaty;
Boris Manollenko - Representative of the Chief Rabbi of Kazakhstan.
In the process of the session of Congress Secretariat the following agenda was set up:
- To discuss the theme and agenda of the III Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.
- To establish working group to prepare final documents of the III Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.
- To fix the date and place of the VII Session of the Secretariat of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.
- To adopt the Minutes of the VI Session of the Secretariat of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.
During the session of Secretariat fruitful exchange of views on the agenda took place. All members of the Secretariat participated in the discussions of above mentioned questions.
Having considered the proposals of participants to session of Secretariat the following decisions were taken:
I. To take into account voiced proposals on the theme (Annex 1) and to divide them on below five cluster groups:
1) Moral values;
2) Peace and Security;
3) Environment and Harmony;
4) Genuine Dialogue and cooperation;
5) Promotion of Justice.
II. To delegate to a working group to continue work on the agenda of the III Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.
III. To set a Working group for drafting the final documents of the III Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions as follows:
- Rapil Zhoshibayev - Deputy Foreign Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan;
- Yerali Togzhanov - Chairman of the Committee on Religious Affairs of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan;
- Doulat Kuanyshev - Ambassador at Large, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan;
- Mohamed Abdel Ghani Morsi Shama - Adviser to the Minister of Awqafs of the Arab Republic of Egypt;
- Majed Abdulaziz Alturki - Adviser to the Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Da'wah and Guidance, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia;
- Khaled Akasheh - Bureau Chief for Islam of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, the Holy See (Vatican);
- Meir Danino - Representative of the Sephardic Chief Rabbi;
- Yuri Novgorodov - Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kazakhstan, representative of the World Lutheran Federation;
- Alexander Vasyutin - Priest, Department on External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchy;
- Mrs. Kala Dhananjay Acharya - Director of the Research Institute for Indian Culture "Somaiya Bharatiya Sanskriti Peetham", Representative of Hinduism. India;
- Yang Ki-Hoon (Joju) - Representative in Central Asia (based in Tashkent) of Chogechong Buddhist Organization.
IV. To hold the VII session of the Secretariat of the Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in Almaty on 28-29 October 2008.
