G20 interfaith leaders gather in Salt Lake City for opening ceremony

The G20 Interfaith Forum opened at the Historic Tabernacle at Temple Square in Salt Lake City with senior leaders from seven faith traditions, drawing what organizers called the largest gathering of interfaith leaders in Utah history. Speakers focused on peace, religious freedom, climate risk and the human impact of AI ahead of the G20 leaders’ meeting in Miami in December.

Why it matters: - The Salt Lake City gathering brought faith leaders into the global policy conversation ahead of the G20 leaders’ summit in Miami in December. - Speakers tied religion to practical questions around peace, religious freedom, economic justice, climate pressure and artificial intelligence. - Organizers cast the forum as a chance to move faith-informed values from dialogue into action.

What happened: - The G20 Interfaith Forum opened at the Historic Tabernacle at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. - Senior leaders from seven faith traditions addressed the opening ceremony. - President Dallin H. Oaks of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hosted the evening and welcomed delegates to the Church’s world headquarters. - Oaks called the delegation the most prominent constellation of faith leaders ever gathered in Salt Lake City and pledged support for the forum’s peacemaking work. - Sheikh Dr. Mohammed bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa, secretary general of the Muslim World League, delivered the opening keynote as guest of honor. - Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, apostolic nuncio to the United States, delivered a message on behalf of the Holy See. - Michael O. Leavitt, president of The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and a former Utah governor and U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services, conducted the ceremony. - Bishop Alastair Redfern opened the evening in prayer. - The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square performed throughout and ended with “Come, Come, Ye Saints.” - Lord Russell Rook offered the closing prayer.

The details: - Al-Issa warned that hate speech, amplified by digital platforms, can become a gateway to violence and often borrows the language of religion. - Al-Issa said unjust war, including wars made in the name of religion, is “not a divine banner, but a satanic one.” - Caccia pointed to the G20 leaders’ December meeting in Miami and said the key question is whether growth, energy security and artificial intelligence will serve the human person. - Caccia said technology offers extraordinary possibilities but does not define what is good. - Leavitt said faith leaders can move people to act when government alone cannot. - Leavitt said trust in a faith leader can be what gets people to walk through the door of a clinic. - Leavitt said protecting religious freedom must never end because faith depends on freedom to survive. - IF20 President W. Cole Durham said the forum has worked since 2014 to give faith-informed perspectives a seat at the diplomatic table and translate religious values into action. - IF20 Vice President Katherine Marshall said justice and fairness will run through the economic agenda G20 leaders take up in December. - Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazadeh, chairman of the Caucasus Muslims Board, conveyed greetings from the president of Azerbaijan and thanked the United States and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for hosting the forum. - Pujya Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati said the Tabernacle reflected resilient hope through beauty and harmony built in the face of suffering. - Saraswati urged G20 leaders to treat every decision as a family decision and measure success by care for the most vulnerable. - Rabbi Mark Dratch traced Jewish hope from Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones to Holocaust survivors singing “Hatikvah” after liberation. - Dratch said the forum’s members are “prisoners of hope.” - Elder Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon said the word “shared” in Greek shares a root with “community” and called for care for the earth. - Emmanuel said a crisis in humanity’s relationship with God becomes a crisis in its relationship with creation. - Dr. Francis Kuria Kagema said climate change, conflict and debt form a “polycrisis” that hits the poor and vulnerable hardest. - Kuria said faith leaders share a moral responsibility to act and imagine a world of sacred shared flourishing.

Between the lines: - The forum used a religious setting to argue that global economic and technological policy cannot be separated from human dignity. - The recurring theme was that peace, prosperity and innovation only matter if they protect the most vulnerable. - The mix of Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Orthodox and interfaith voices signaled an effort to present moral consensus across traditions rather than a single-faith message.

What's next: - G20 leaders are set to meet in Miami in December to consider economic growth, energy security and artificial intelligence. - Forum participants are likely to continue pressing for policies that link development, peace and religious freedom to human welfare. - The forum’s stated goal remains to turn faith-based principles into action at the diplomatic level.

The bottom line: - The opening ceremony framed interfaith dialogue as a policy tool, not just a symbolic gathering, with a clear message to G20 leaders: progress has to serve people, especially those with the least power.