SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES PRAYERS FOR SUCCESS OF UNITED NATIONS WORK FOR WORLD'S PEOPLES, AT SERVICE ON EVE OF ASSEMBLY SESSION
Press Release
SG/SM/6328
SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES PRAYERS FOR SUCCESS OF UNITED NATIONS WORK FOR WORLD'S PEOPLES, AT SERVICE ON EVE OF ASSEMBLY SESSION
19970915 Following is the text of remarks made today by Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the prayer service at the Holy Family Church, for the occasion of the opening of the fifty-second session of the General Assembly:It is an honour to join you in prayer today, on the eve of a new session of the General Assembly. This is a wonderful tradition, for it allows us to express, in a spirit of amity among peoples and faiths, our renewed hopes for future peace and common progress.
I would like to thank the Holy Father Pope John Paul II for his message of support, and Their Excellencies Archbishop Martino and Archbishop O'Connor for their role in making this event a special part of the United Nations calendar.
Religious leaders and their communities have much to offer the United Nations. Men and women of faith are a strong influence on group and individual conduct. They can inspire people to new levels of commitment and public service. They can be powerful forces for change. And whatever their differences, all faiths can come together at the United Nations and agree on the need to care for people, for the environment, for the welfare of future generations, as well as our own.
Prayer is a profoundly personal act, as well as one that, undertaken in groups, can promote solidarity among peoples of diverse backgrounds and concerns. Today, let us do both.
As a group, let us pray that the Charter's summons to international tolerance and understanding -- a call reflecting values found in all religions -- does not go unheeded. Let us pray that the right to freedom of religion, set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, does not go unfulfilled.
And as individuals, let us all -- Permanent Representatives, Secretariat officials and all other members of the United Nations community -- pray for the strength, wisdom and compassion needed to face the enormous challenges ahead. Let us pray for the success of our important work on behalf of the world's peoples.
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