The first speaker was the Grand Ayatollah of Canada, Mr. Seyed Reza Hosseini Nassab, who gave an inspiring speech entitled “Pursuit of Truth and Realization of Religious Peace” in which he clearly pointed out the role of religious leaders in the creation of a peaceful future.

He emphasized that “It is the most important responsibility of Religious Leaders to find out the truth from the Holy Scripture and to teach it to other people, especially the youth.” He went on to add that “accordingly, we should support the WARP office discussions, as the significant link and the great network for the worldwide religious institutions and spiritual leaders, to show the cooperation and solidarity of all religious leaders, and to send the message of tolerance, peace and unity to all people around the world.”

The next speaker, Rev. Acharya Prem Shankaranand Tirth, the Hindu High Priest of Shree Geeta Ashram of Delhi, gave a rousing speech regarding “The Necessity of the Discussion for the True Harmony”, and he also explained the differences between the WARP Office meetings and other religious groups.

He began by sharing his personal background and experience with the WARP Office, stating that “while participating in different interfaith dialogues, I met HWPL and started to join the WARP Office Dialogue of the Scriptures. I became enlightened with its goal to bring harmony in the religious world by finding the trustworthy scripture.”

He further explained that “HWPL is trying to make that effort to gather all religious people in the WARP Office for the comparison of scriptures and to see the similarities of God and His teachings to demolish differences. Through this, people can live harmoniously and practice God’s heavenly culture.”

Ven. Sumiththa Thero, the Chairman of the Sri Lankan Buddhist Cultural Center Hong Kong, gave an empowering speech regarding the “Trustworthy Scripture and the Task of Religious Leaders”.

His speech was very powerful and many were moved when he stated that “religions share the same heart in seeking for the absolute truth because we all face the same sufferings like goodness and evilness, life and death, wars, etc.”

As a participant in the WARP Office meetings, Ven. Sumiththa Thero also openly shared his experiences there, stating “for the first time in my life, I have engaged in very deep dialogues and have seen how it is like to feel equal on the same table even if we have different religious backgrounds. This feeling is so strong that I start to imagine how wars will stop if people will feel the same way as I do.” Through this he clearly emphasized the importance of cooperation in seeking for a trustworthy scripture.

With the vast experiences of all the participants, the strength of the comparison of religious scriptures discussions held in the WARP Offices is amazing to behold. Despite the multitude of different religious that can be found worldwide, it is important to never forget the many similarities that exist between them. Not only are they all seeking for the highest truth, but all the people around the world share in the same anxieties and sufferings and have the same desire to work for peace and give that hope to the entire world.

Chairman Man Hee Lee of HWPL addressed all the religious leaders present, stating that “When you put something on a scale, you know whether it is heavy or light. Just like that, we, ourselves, have to become the just and righteous scale. We, the religious leaders, have to be the wise scales measuring all religious scriptures. Let us not be arrogant thinking that what we know is everything.”

He added, “the scriptures of our respective faiths are valuable, so we have to become a master of them. The next thing is we have to gather all religious scriptures and work to define the trustworthy scripture with a legitimate standard. Before the scriptures are unified, religions cannot be aligned. Everything that religious leaders discuss must clearly be based on what is written in the scripture, which needs to be comprehensively analyzed and studied for the true alliance of religions.”

Overall, the 3rd International Religious Leaders’ Conference provided religious leaders from all different denominations and countries around the world the opportunity to gather in one heart and share their unique experiences. It was also a time where these religious leaders directly confirmed that the WARP Office scripture comparison meetings are the answer to solve the issue of the reconciliation of religions. It is anticipated that through these WARP Office Meetings peace will soon be achieved between religions in accordance with the standard for a trustworthy scripture that was announced at this conference.