wfn.org | UN Religious Summit Takes Interfaith Dialogue to a New Level

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Bahá'í World News Service
31 August 2000
SUMMIT OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS AT THE UN TAKES INTERFAITH DIALOGUE TO A NEW
LEVEL

NEW YORK (BWNS) -­ The images, broadcast around the globe by CNN and other
major news networks, were compelling in their pageantry: some 1,000
religious leaders, representing every major world religion and resplendent
in an array of saffron robes, purple vestments, white turbans and black
cassocks, were gathered together in the stately General Assembly building of
the United Nations.

Yet more significant than the imagery of the Millennium World Peace Summit
of Religious and Spiritual Leaders, held 28-31 August 2000 at the UN and at
the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, was the substance of what was said ­ and the
great symbolism of having the opportunity to say it at the United Nations.

“This is very different than any interfaith meeting that has happened
before,” said Professor Lawrence Sullivan, director of the Harvard
University Center for the Study of World Religions, who attended the Summit
as an observer. “If you hold an ecumenical meeting in a church or synagogue
or a mosque, that is not common ground. But the United Nations is a global
common ground. It changes the nature of the conversation.”

And the essence of the conversation was this: that it is time for the world’
s religious communities to stop fighting and arguing amongst themselves and,
in an atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding, to begin working
together -- in cooperation with secular leaders at the United Nations and
elsewhere -- for peace, justice, the eradication of poverty, the protection
of the environment, and social harmony.

“Humanity stands at a critical juncture in history, one that calls for
strong moral and spiritual leadership to help set a new direction for
society,” states the preamble of a declaration issued by the Summit. “We, as
religious and spiritual leaders recognize our special responsibility for the
well-being of the human family and peace on earth.” Among other things, the
declaration condemned all violence in the name of religion, urged religious
communities to respect the right to freedom of religion, and recognized
"that men and women are equal partners in all aspects of life…"

A "Galaxy of Leaders"

The Summit was organized by a wide range of interfaith groups,
non-governmental organizations, and private foundations, including Ted
Turner’s UN Foundation / Better World Fund, which gave US$600,000 to the
event. It drew, in the words of former UN Under Secretary General Maurice
Strong, a veritable “galaxy of leaders” from all of the world's major
religions, including the Bahá'í Faith, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism,
Jainism, Judaism, Islam, Shintoism, Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism, as well as
indigenous religions from nearly every continent.

“This summit of religious and spiritual leaders is without doubt one of the
most inspiring gatherings ever held here,” said UN Secretary General Kofi
Annan, in an address to the Summit. “Whatever your past, whatever your
calling, and whatever the differences among you, your presence here at the
United Nations signifies your commitment to our global mission of tolerance,
development and peace.”

Among the leaders in attendance were Francis Cardinal Arinze, President of
the Pontifical Council on Interreligious Dialogue; Chief Rabbi Israel Meir
Lau, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel; Abdullah al-Obaid, Secretary General
of the World Muslim League; Konrad Raiser, Secretary General of the World
Council of Churches; Metropolitan Pitrim of the Russian Orthodox Church;
Eshin Watanabe, Patriarch of Tendai Buddhism; Hindu spiritual leader Sri
Mata Amritanandamayi Devi; Firoze Kotwal, High Priest of Zoroastrianism; and
Albert Lincoln, Secretary General of the Bahá'í International Community.

In all, some 50 “preeminent leaders,” as Summit organizers termed them, were
present. Together with hundreds of other delegates and representatives, many
came from regions of significant religious conflict, including the Middle
East, East Asia, the Indian sub-continent, and Eastern Europe. As well, a
good number of the Summit's participants have not been significantly
involved in interfaith events previously, according to Summit organizers.

"I've gone to many, many global interfaith gatherings, and what is unique
about this gathering is many of the leaders are meeting face-to-face for the
first time," said Bawa Jain, Secretary General of the Summit. "This is going
to have a major domino effect. They are already reaching out to their own
communities. I think you will see the global interfaith movement really
evolving from this Summit."

Theme of Unity in Diversity

Dr. Lincoln of the Bahá’í Community called on the gathering to work for a
“global community based on unity in diversity.” That could be done, said Dr.
Lincoln, by working to identify the “core values that are common to all
religious and spiritual traditions.”

This theme ­ that the world’s religions can work together if they respect
their diversity while understanding their essential commonalities ­ was
echoed by many during the Summit.

“The spirit loves diversity,” said Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a Hindu leader.
“The time has come to love each other’s religions as one’s own.”

Rev. Nichiko Niwano, President of Rissho Kosei Kai in Japan, said: “We are
members of one family. Our lives are sustained by one great light.”

Even secular leaders who addressed the Summit made similar points. “We are
all one race, and there is only one God who manifests himself in different
ways,” said Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, who was the Summit’s honorary
chairman. “So maybe what we ought to do ­ what we have to do now is we have
to work together.”

The opening day of the Summit began with several hours of prayers by the
leaders, one aim being to prepare the hall for next week’s scheduled meeting
of heads of state and government at the Millennium Summit.

“Above and beyond a remarkable maturation in inter-religious dialogue, this
meeting of spiritual leaders in the Chamber of the United Nations General
Assembly, on the eve of the Millennium Summit of the world’s Heads of State
and Government, marks an historic and vital step forward in creating the
necessary mutual respect and cooperation between religious and political
leadership, conditions without which world peace and the prosperity of
humankind are probably unattainable,” said Dr. Lincoln of the Bahá'í
Community.

“Our disordered world is in desperate need of a moral compass that is above
passing fashion and untainted by the pervasive materialism of the modern
era,” said Dr. Lincoln. "The convening of this summit suggests that the
world has become aware of this need and of the capacity latent in the world’
s religious traditions.”

For many participants, the level of dialogue, combined with the high level
of representation, made for an historic event ­ especially in view of the
conflicts that have often broken out between religious communities.
“The significance of this Summit is that we have just completed a
millennium -- a thousand years -- in which people too often killed other
people in the name of God, a millennium that for my people begins with the
first Crusade in 1096 and culminated in the Holocaust,” said Rabbi Johnathon
Sacks, Chief Rabbi of England.

“In my view this meeting was one in which we crossed a threshold, and we can
never again go back to where we were,” said Rabbi Sacks, “because the
leaders of 70 different faiths have come together in public assembly at the
United Nations to commit themselves with their faith communities to an
agenda of mutual respect and peace."

“This is no quick fix,” Rabbi Sacks added. “Hatreds that have been
inculcated for centuries are not going to evaporate overnight. But the
commitment of religious leaders to religious pluralism here has been a
momentous event that will send a signal of hope to the world.”

For more information, contact Brad Pokorny at 212-803-2544 or by email at:
bpokorny@bic.org

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