wfn.org | WCC UPDATE: Geneva: faith communities for tolerance

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World Council of Churches - Update
Contact: + 41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 15/11/2005

IN GENEVA, FAITH COMMUNITIES URGE NEW COMMITMENT TO TOLERANCE

Whether in European suburbs or Middle Eastern capitals, religious identity
can often seem to be a source or fuel of conflict. And as many Western
societies struggle to adapt to an emerging multicultural and multireligious reality, issues of tolerance and "living together" become ever more
acute.

Responding to these concerns, people from virtually all the world's faith
traditions came together in Geneva this week and appealed to their own
believers and the broader world to nurture actively the sources of
tolerance and compassion common to all religions.

"We affirm that humankind, made up of many peoples, nations, races,
colours, cultures and religious traditions, is one human family. Therefore
we reject all attempts to drive wedges between religious traditions by
presenting them as mutually exclusive. We commit ourselves to lift up the
teachings and practices in our religious traditions that nourish life and
promote community," affirmed a statement of "common commitments" sent to
religious communities in Geneva and the region.

"We call upon all religious communities to make such acts of commitment
their own and so further the vision of spirituality that would bring
healing and wholeness to our fractured world."

> Interfaith celebration

The text was made public during a series of events focusing on religious
tolerance and dialogue on the theme "My neighbour's faith and mine:
religious identity - for better or for worse?" in Geneva 12-14 November
2005, under the auspices of the World Council of Churches and the
Geneva-based Interreligious Platform.

Through encounter, debate, prayer and sacred dance, participants from
diverse religious horizons and origins shared their traditions, explored
the role of faith in their lives and how it influenced societies and
attitudes to "the other".

The programme, including an inter-faith celebration at Geneva's historic
St Pierre's Cathedral, involved local leaders, scholars and other
participants from the Baha'i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish and
Muslim faiths. Highlights of the three-day event included an international
colloquium under the heading "An end to tolerance?", and a youth forum
which allowed over 100 young people from 19 countries to dialogue on
experiences of belief, identity and plurality.

> Changes in religious identity

Profound changes in society are strongly impacting the nature of religious
identity, according to Rev. Jean-Claude Basset, a Swiss Protestant pastor
and specialist on interreligious dialogue. In his context, faith could no
longer be considered as an inherited or imposed set of values, but was
increasingly understood as a question of individual conscience and
personal experience. Dialogue therefore requires new approaches.

For other speakers during the event, the fragmentation of traditional
identities, strengthened by globalization, is one of the root causes of
fundamentalism and an obstacle to dialogue, strengthening religious
"fortresses" and the risk of confrontation which, in some contexts,
already exists.

> Spirituality as a response to fundamentalism

The problem of violence is not a problem of religion, but rather a problem
of our attitudes to religion, the Algerian-born Muslim academic Larbi
Kechat argued. "We need to rediscover the connection between our vertical
and horizontal identities, the Divine and the human, which can be the
basis for rediscovering our mutuality and complementarity. The crisis
facing humankind is the loss of certitudes," which can lead to new forms
of religious fundamentalism, he said.

When religion becomes ideology, it has the capacity to nurture exclusivity
and therefore violence, according to Rabbi Marc Raphaël Guedj from
Geneva. "There is a need to move from identity to spirituality. It is by
deepening spiritual experience, and returning to the sources of faith,
that a balanced relationship between particular identity and universality
can be restored," Guedj proposed. "The deeper our religious experience,
the more open we become. Mystics of all traditions have no problem with
dialogue!"

> From mutual understanding to active collaboration

WCC's general secretary, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, underlined how interfaith
dialogue is of growing significance for the WCC as a global fellowship of
Christian churches. "Today the call for dialogue as a way of resolving
conflict, as a way of soothing tensions, and as a way of offering a space
where divisive issues could be discussed, is heard ever more loudly.
Religious leaders are being challenged to more effectively exercise their
ethical responsibility in addressing situations which could threaten peace
and coexistence."

"The challenge to all religious communities is to re-imagine and rethink a
society that is able to cope constructively with religious and cultural
plurality," added Rev. Dr Hans Ucko, head of WCC's interreligious
relations office, who moderated the international colloquium. "There is an
urgent need to move beyond a situation of parallel societies to one that
is able to cope constructively with religious and cultural plurality,
going beyond mere tolerance to a community of authentic respect."

Dialogue needs to move from mutual understanding to active collaboration,
Kobia stressed. "The increased awareness of religious plurality, the
potential role of religion in peace-building, and the growing recognition
of the place of religion in public life present immense challenges that
require deeper understanding and inter-faith cooperation. That which we
can do together, we should not do separately."

The interreligious event "My neighbour's faith and mine: religious
identity - for better or for worse?" was made possible with the support of
Pictet & Cie.

The detailed programme, photos of the events and the main documents,
including the full text of the "common commitments", are available on:
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/interreligious/vivre-ensemble.html

Additional information on the WCC's interreligious relations and dialogue
team which organized the event is available on:
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/interreligious/index-e.html

This material may be reprinted freely.

Additional information: Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363
media@wcc-coe.org

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The World Council of Churches is a fellowship of churches, now 347, in
more than 120 countries in all continents from virtually all Christian
traditions. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member church but works
cooperatively with the WCC. The highest governing body is the assembly,
which meets approximately every seven years. The WCC was formally
inaugurated in 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its staff is headed by
general secretary Samuel Kobia from the Methodist church in Kenya.