The Story of a Box
In 1986,
WWF International, assisted by Martin Palmer who is now ARC’s Secretary
General, invited five major faiths to come to Assisi to
dedicate themselves to protection of the natural world
according to their own teachings and traditions. The
five were Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and
Judaism.
The event was a great success: it
culminated in a ceremony inside the magnificent 13th
century basilica of St. Francis and it led: to the
commitments by the faiths to work on the environment; to
WWF’s commitment to work with the faiths, and later to
the foundation of ARC as an independent charity.
In 1999, WWF and ARC decided to hold the
next major meeting of the faiths - the largest since the
Assisi meeting. By then there were nine faiths involved,
with two others preparing to join. It was decided to
hold the event in Bhaktapur, Nepal. It was decided to
keep a strong link with the event in Assisi where
everything had started.
Two years before,
Assisi had been hit by a major earthquake and part of
the ceiling of the basilica had fallen down, taking with
it some treasured fresco paintings. As a sign of their
commitment to Bhaktapur, and to the faiths building a
future for the planet, the Franciscans of Assisi gave
ARC a stone block from the basilica, which Brother Max
Mitzi – who had helped design and organise the Assisi
event – was to bring to Nepal.
A box was
commissioned to hold the stone, and it was decided to
make it from wood from the six continents – Europe,
North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Australia
– from trees grown in forests managed according to
Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) guidelines. A Swiss
carpenter worked free of charge, and six companies
around the world donated the wood.
Link
here
to find out what happened to the box.
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