The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, has praised the progress made towards reconciliation amongst the religious communities in Sarajevo, ten years after the region's inter-ethnic conflict.
Speaking at a reception in the city's national theatre to mark the end of the Building Bridges Christian-Muslim Dialogue, Dr. Williams said that miracles were happening but that the past was still a burden.
"In this part of Europe, every community lives under heavy burdens and one of those burdens is a history, a past of both guilt and suffering. In any setting where people have made each other suffer across the centuries, history lies heavily. Forgiveness and reconciliation are the ways in which we bear each other's burdens, so that we do not deny or run away from our history, but together make something new from it."
Forging a common national identity was a challenge, he said, but that personal commitment helped to show the way.
"When we are faithful to each other, we learn how to be faithful to a nation; not as something abstract, not as something imposed, but as the very form of our love and commitment to one another. And in a way the dialogue between our faiths shows us how this may be true."
Dr Williams compared Sarajevo with Jerusalem, with its mix of the three great faiths and said that whenever he prayed for the peace of Jerusalem, he would also be praying for Sarajevo:
"'Pray for the peace of Jerusalem,' says the psalmist; 'may those who love you prosper'. In the name of God, I wish you that prosperity and that peace and I thank you with all my heart on behalf of all your guests this week, for the welcome and the inspiration which you have given to us all."
Further information can be found online at www.archbishopofcanterbury.org.
