An international prayer for peace.

Religion is often seen as a cause of conflict around the world, but religious leaders can also be strong promoters of peace--especially when gathered 1,000 strong at the United Nations. The Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders at the end of August was a dramatic display of diversity, with everyone from Anglicans to Zoroastrians represented. Saffron-robed Buddhist monks shared the stage with black-suited Christian clerics and turbaned swamis. Prayers were offered by rabbis, a cardinal, and clan mothers.

Although some criticized the four-day summit as more style than substance, the gathering did result in a formal declaration on peace, poverty, and the environment. "We have to ask a fundamental question: What role does religion have to play in helping resolve these conflicts, or in exacerbating these conflicts?" asked Bawa Jain, secretary-general of the summit. "Can religion play a role in the peacemaking process?"

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan noted that too often "religion has been yoked to nationalism, stoking flames of violent conflict and setting up group against group. Religious leaders have not always spoken out when their voices could have combated hatred and persecution or could have roused people from indifference." But the fault, he said, lay "not with the faith, but with the faithful."

Several Catholic leaders attended the summit, including Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue. In an interview with Vatican Radio, he called the summit a positive step. "Cooperation among the followers of different religions not only can, but must contribute to respect for human rights and reciprocal love," he said. "Otherwise, religions are reduced to museum pieces. The promotion of peace is one of the points in which the majority of religions are in agreement."

But the cardinal expressed some wariness about the organization of the summit, which was partially bankrolled by media mogul Ted Turner's Better World Fund. "We are interested in this meeting, but there are some aspects we don't necessarily understand. It is not clear who are the people behind it, and why," he told Catholic News Service.

Another controversy involved summit organizers' decision not to invite the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, out of deference to China. When a group of Tibetan Buddhists were allowed to read a statement from the Dalai Lama supporting thesummit, the Chinese representatives walked out.