Bishop Munib Younan, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, has been awarded the Niwano Peace Prize for his work toward interreligious dialogue among Christians, Muslims and Jews, both in Jerusalem and worldwide.
The prize is awarded each year by the The Niwano Peace Foundation of Japan in recognition of an individual or organisation that has dedicated their service and scholarship to promoting peaceful cooperation among religions particularly in places of difficulty.
Bishop Younan, who is the 34th recipient of the prize, is a founding member of several Middle East interfaith groups including the Council for Religious Institutions in the Holy Land (CRIHL), The Jonah Group, and the Al-Liqa’ Center for Religious Studies, and is currently serving with two other interfaith groups, The Jordanian Interfaith Coexistence Research Center, and the prize giving committee of the Jordanian World Interfaith Harmony Week.
The NPF international committee said that in a world “characterised by leaders who seek to emphasize difference and hatred, Bishop Younan has consistently strived for the opposite”.
“His work emphasises peace over power and unity over monotheistic domination.”
Speaking as he accepted the award last week, Bishop Younan said that faith leaders “must confront the extremists in their midst” and reject the idea that “extremism is somehow the measure of faithfulness”.
“As a Lutheran Christian, my hope is anchored in the hope of God’s coming reconciliation of all things,” he said. “This hope is present today, both for our neighbors and for our global ecology and environment. This hope does not separate us from our neighbors but calls us into ever greater concern for their well-being. From this foundation, we embrace rather than exclude, standing for common values of justice, peace, equality, living together, and accepting the other.”
Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches, congratulated the bishop on the award, noting it was “strong and timely recognition of his service for just peace in all his ministry for his people and his church, as well as for the whole ecumenical community locally and globally”.
“It also shows how significant he has been and still is for the interreligious dialogues for justice and peace in the Holy Land,” he said, adding that the bishop has shown “that the call for justice and the work for peace can go hand-in-hand, and the nonviolent, faith-based approach is the strongest possible call to find new ways towards just peace”.
Previous recipients of the award have included Brazilian Catholic Archbishop, Helder P Camara (1983), Swiss Catholic priest and theologian, Professor Dr Hans Küng (2005), and Nigerian pastor and activist, Rev Esther Abimiku Ibanga (2015).
