Mormon Church Represented at World Religions Conference in Kazakhstan
August 15, 2009 by DH
Filed under Mormon Asia
LDS Church represented at World Religions Conference in Kazakhstan
Recently the Mormon Church was represented at the Third Congress of Traditional and World Religions in Astana, Kazakhstan. Elder Paul B. Pieper, a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy of The LDS Church made a presentation there in July 2009.
There is an official LDS Newsroom release as well as an article from the LDS Church News. I’ve included a few highlights from my personal reading, including quotes I really liked, and links to the official articles so that you can read those if you are interested. The links are below the highlights of the respective articles.
LDS Newsroom article highlights:
- Elder Paul Pieper is President of the Europe East Area and represented the church at the request of the First Presidency
- His presentation was on “Solidarity, Especially in the Period of Crises”
- He focused on the LDS Church’s belief in Jesus Christ.
- The Traditional and World Religions congress was first organized in 2003 by President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev in response to the attacks of September 11th.
- The congress is held every three years and its purpose is to bring different religions together so that through dialogue they can work to make the world a better place.
- It was pretty diverse as you can see from this quote:
“The Third Congress included approximately 75 delegations from religious traditions including Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Shintoism and Zorastrianism, as well as leaders of academic and governmental institutions.”
Church Represented at World Religions Conference in Kazakhstan – LDS Newsroom
Here are some highlights from the LDS Church News article:
- This quote:
“The invitation from the Kazakhstani government to participate in the Congress is the first for the Church and is significant because it recognizes the growing understanding of government and political leaders of the worldwide stature of the Church. This is particularly significant in the countries of the former Soviet Union where the Church is new and relatively unknown.”
- Also in attendance with Elder Pieper were Sister Mariana Gurina, director of Public Affairs of the LDS Church in Kazakhstan and Area Seventies Elder Dmitry Marchenko and Elder Alexander Manzhos from the Europe East Area.
- Those that attened had time to informally converse with many of the other Congress participants representing many world faiths in addition to meeting with the press covering the event.
- And this quote:
After the Congress concluded, Elder Pieper participated in a meeting with Kazakhstani President Nazarbayev, together with U.S. Ambassador to Kazakhstan Richard E. Hoagland and LDS Congressman Eni Faleomavaega, D-American Samoa. Elder Pieper thanked President Nazarbayev on behalf of the First Presidency for having the vision to organize the Congress and for the Church’s opportunity to participate. He also explained some of the basic teachings of the Church to the Kazakhstani president.
“It was an honor to represent the First Presidency and the Church members generally,” Elder Pieper said. “I am hopeful that the friendships that were begun at the Congress will provide the basis for increased understanding and cooperation between the Church and others of good will in the future.”
For the full article:
Building Bridges in Kazakhstan – LDS Church News
