Your Excellency, Archbishop Chullikatt,

Your Excellency, Archbishop Dolan,

Pastor Robbins,

[Your Excellency, Mr. Joseph Deiss, President of the General Assembly.]

Dear friends,

I am deeply honoured to join with you once again for this service. I look forward to it every year.

For the United Nations, September is the season of renewal. And we begin right here. By giving thanks?gathering strength?.and looking forward in faith.

Faith in our universal values.

Faith in our common humanity.

Faith in our shared future.

We are all awake to the challenges of our world. Economic insecurity is all around us. So is the language of division. Communities and families everywhere are struggling to navigate these anxious times. We are being tested.

And yet I have hope. Profound hope.

It is not an abstract feeling, it is rooted in so much that I have seen and heard around the world.

This summer, in Sierra Leone, I met a unique group of young people. Their limbs had been amputated during the war. And yet, there they were, playing soccer. .

Competing, kicking, running, scoring. To my eyes, they were even better than the World Cup players.

It was a moving display of determination. I saw this throughout a rising Africa striving to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

In Nagasaki and Hiroshima, I met many survivors of the nuclear blast 65 years ago. They are now in the winter of their lives. They told me, “Yes, it is difficult to tell our stories, but it is harder to keep silent.” As one survivor said, “this is my mission: to live?.to help ensure that it never happens again.”

In Pakistan, I visited with families who lost everything in the slow-motion tsunami that has devastated their country. Yet instead of weariness, I saw a resolve to build anew.

And here in New York and in other places, I heard something else just recently. In the face of those who seek to drive a wedge between people of faith, I saw many religious leaders rise up and speak out with one voice for tolerance and understanding.

We know that the way ahead can never be lit by the flames of burning books and fiery words – it is illuminated by the light of reason and justice.

It shines by keeping the faith in our common humanity.

This is what brings us together – here at this prayer service and for the 65th General Assembly of the United Nations.

You have been outstanding leaders on the pressing global issues of the day. I truly believe we are at a pivot point for progress on three of our biggest dreams.

To build a prosperous world free of poverty.

To create a sustainable world that is cleaner and greener for our children.

To secure a safer world, free of the menace of nuclear weapons.

These goals are not only within reason – they are within reach.

All of it is possible, not in some distant future, but in our time.

Together, let us pledge and let us pray to make it so.

Thank you.