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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (174
notes).

Note 173 by UMNS on June 20, 1997 at 15:49 Eastern (2328 characters).

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CONTACT:  Linda Bloom                             361(10-71B){173}
          New York (212) 870-3803                    June 20, 1997

State Department committee
promotes religious understanding

     NEW YORK (UMNS) -- The establishment of an advisory
subcommittee on religion and conflict resolution shows the U.S.
State Department now considers a grasp of religion to be important
"in understanding the dynamics of the world," according to a
United Methodist participant.
     The Rev. Diana Eck, a professor of comparative religion at
Harvard University, was among people attending a regional meeting
of the subcommittee here June 16.
     The subcommittee is part of an advisory committee set up by
then-Secretary of State Warren Christopher last November. Another
subcommittee focuses on the issue of religious persecution.
     Eck said the committee marks the first time the State
Department has gathered "people of various religious traditions to
essentially find out ways in which religious communities can
express concerns, gather knowledge and interrelate."
     She said she expects her subcommittee will share some of the
positive aspects of current interreligious activity and provide
resources and information useful for people in foreign policy and
diplomacy.
     "Everyone knows that fundamentalists are on the rise," she
added. "What we don't know is that interreligiousness and
tolerance also are on the rise."
     Eck pointed out that religious persecution and reconciliation
can exist in the same country -- in Pakistan, for example. "When
we underline only the seeds of conflict, we miss the seeds of
important change," she said.
     The professor currently directs the Pluralism Project at
Harvard, which "deals with questions of interreligious encounter
in America as it plays out in the public square." She also was
moderator of a World Council of Churches working group on dialogue
with people of living faiths for more than 15 years.
                              #  #  #

     * Information for this story was provided by Wendy McDowell,
communications staff, National Council of Churches.

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