SEOUL, South Korea- HWPL chairman Lee Man Hee remembers with vivid precision the time he prayed on the battlefield.
“I can see the cannons coming from the enemy side. I can see them coming from our side,” HWPL chairman Lee Man Hee said while recounting his experience during the Korean War.
This was the life-altering moment Hee realized that his mission was to bring peace to the world. Hee spoke about this experience during the 6th Annual Religions Leader’s conference during the 2023 World Peace Summit.
Dedicated to creating dialogue between various faiths and religions, including Islam, Catholicism, and Hinduism, various religious leaders took to the podium to discuss their ongoing faith-based conflicts and their appreciation for HWPL. This included Iman Ibrahima Doumbia, who spoke about his appreciation for HWPL’s The World Alliance of Religions’ Peace (WARP) office, which was established as a platform for interfaith reconciliation and was featured with an announcement.
The office also offers testament breakdowns so that religious leaders, as well as other interested parties, can better understand different faiths with the idea that misunderstanding leads to religious-based conflict. Doumbia even cited that knowledge is the opposite of ignorance.
“I choose to do my part by having other religious leaders attend my faith-based occasions,” Doumbia said.
Another highlight of the summit was the 9th anniversary of the reconciliation of faith taking place in Mindanao, an island in the Philippines. The island had been the scene of an ongoing war for the previous 40 years as a result of the conflict between the Catholic population of Mindanao and the island’s Islamic inhabitants. The conflict ended on January 24, 2014, after a civilian agreement was signed by the Philippine government and Moro groups. The negotiations were hosted by HWPL and organized by the IWPG and the IPYG.
“These ongoing dialogue meetings are opening the global doors for solidarity,” said The Most Rev. Antonio J. Ledesma, the current chairman of the Episcopal Commission of Interreligious Dialogue.