Your Honourable President Mulatu of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia, Excellencies, Distinguished religious, faith and spiritual leaders, Dear friends of peace of World Interfaith Harmony Week,

It is my great joy and privilege to congratulate you for commemorating World Interfaith Harmony Week in Ethiopia – the Land of Origins; bringing inspiring spiritual, traditional and religious leaders together with international change-makers and musical artists to celebrate both the colourful diversity and basic unity among the human family, and to demonstrate how peaceful coexistence among religions and spiritual traditions fosters a sustainable and harmonious planet.

While representatives of various faiths and world-views, visionaries, musicians and artists celebrate our common humanity and promote values of intercultural harmony, we realize that we all originate from a same spiritual source we may call the ‚divine spark’.

The divine spark, – highlighted in various religious and spiritual traditions as the inherent sacred universal source residing in each one of us -, is the universal force, which brings all life into being – including ourselves.

The divine spark is our true origin.

While we are confronted nowadays with a historical era, transitioning from a material global culture into a spiritual world civilization, it should be our utmost collective mission to awaken the divine spark in the spirit for humanity in order to generate a civilization of oneness with diversity on planet Earth.

Therefore, in May 2015 at the foot of sacred Mount Fuji in Japan, a great number of change leaders and representatives of various faith traditions gathered to launch The Fuji Declaration.

The Fuji Declaration is an invitation to each human individual and organization to join a steadfast growing global movement in heart and mind in order to bring forth a peaceful and thriving world for future generations. It is a call to consciously evolve with each other and with nature to bring into being a new world based on spiritual values and principles.

The Fuji Declaration has been endorsed and signed by thousands of globally-minded and hearted changemakers from all world’s traditions and cultures since its launching.

In the words of former President of Ethiopia Girma Wolde-Giorgis – who is a Founding Signatory- , The Fuji Declaration is a road map that can bring humanity together for more compassion and respect for all life and Mother Earth.“

In that respect, I cordially invite you to join this international alliance, united by a global commitment to live and collaborate toward the advancement of a harmonious and flourishing world by signing The Fuji Declaration. The Fuji Declaration is available and can be signed online at fujideclaration.org.

Let us collectively write a new chapter about the conscious evolution of the global family.

Let us restore the dignity of our own lives and the awe that we feel towards the lives of others and ones of all creatures on Earth.

May Peace Prevail on Earth. May Peace be in Africa.

Thank you.