One Family The Newsletter of the World Congress of Faiths April, 2005 Website: www.worldfaiths.org Charity Number: 244096
Faith Meeting Faith: a rich resource for life The World Congress of Faiths seeks to bridge the almost unbridgeable: to make bonds of friendship based on knowledge and understanding and to celebrate the differences between religions. While accepting the differences of history and belief between faith communities, we affirm and support each of the faith groups represented at our gatherings. We seek to bring together those who are firm adherents of their own faiths, and who wish to learn from others in a non-judgemental and supportive fashion. In this way, hopefully, we work towards ending the destructive enmity that so tragically dogs the relationships between so many people of faith.
World Congress of Faiths a.g.m and Younghusband lecture This will be held on Tuesday, 3 May at the Brahma Kurmaris Global Co-operation House, 65-69 Pound Lane, London, NW10 2HH 2005 Younghusband Lecturer: Professor Harvey Cox, Harvard University. A.G.M. 5.00 p.m. Younghusband Lecture: 6.30 p.m. Note: Membership of WCF is required for admission, however, special half year introductory membership is available at the door, or visit the WCF website: www.worldfaiths.org. The Younghusband Lecture will be repeated on 4 May at the University Examinations School, High Street, Oxford at 4.30 p.m. It will be chaired by Peggy Morgan and is co-sponsored by WCF and the International Interfaith Centre. Further details from WCF Secretary, Richard Boeke, telephone: 01403 257 801.
WCF future events - Dates for your diary: May 3: WCF a.g.m. and Younghusband Lecture given by Prof Harvey Cox of Harvard University at the Brahma Kumaris Centre. See insert sheet for further details. July 17: Seminar with Keith Ward, who will be discussing his latest book The Case for Religion, from 4.00 p.m. to 7.00 p.m. at the London Interfaith Centre, 125 Salusbury Road, London, NW6 6RG. Responses will be given by Gwen Griffith-Dickson and Abdullah Rafiq. October 15: Conference in Birmingham - further details in the next edition of One Family. November 12: Fideology at the Croydon Unitarian Church. This is a follow-up to the successful conference held last year. May 12-14, 2006: This will be held at Fintry House, Nr Godalming, Surrey.
M.Th. (Taught), M.Litt. (Taught) in Inter-Faith Studies Like never before our age is marked by the encounter of different religious traditions on all levels: global, national, or local. This entails huge opportunities for dialogue, mutual learning, co-operation and even transformation, but also its own specific problems and challenges. If you wish to deepen your understanding of inter-faith relations and if you have a good degree in either theology, religious studies or a related discipline you might be interested in the new designated post-graduate degree in “Inter-Faith-Studies”. The degree is offered from autumn 2005 onwards (subject to Senate’s approval) by The Centre for Inter-Faith Studies / University of Glasgow. For more information please visit http://www.religions.divinity.gla.ac.uk/Centre-Interfaith/index.htm

Focus on David Storey David writes: Born in 1933 I was brought up to think internationally with respect but not uncritically.  At theological college I met Marcus Braybrooke and watched with interest his subsequent work.  Peter Schneider was my vicar and also Secretary to the Archbishops Advisers on other faiths.  Having retired early in 1988, we visited Egypt and Palestine/Israel in 1989.  I was unhappy with the lack of commitment of my church to interfaith dialogue. Celia and I met up with Marcus and volunteered to help his work. I became secretary to the International Committee of the WCF and we became secretaries to the International Interfaith Organisations Co-ordinating Committee for 1993 as a Year of Inter-faith Co-operation and Understanding, with Celia doing the real work involved in the Conference in Bangalore.  We were also involved in the plans for the creation of the International Interfaith Centre, which was created at Oxford at the end of 1993.  We moved there and Celia was one of the first co-ordinators and then a trustee.  We have moved from Oxford to Petersfield.  She retired in 2003 and I became a trustee two months later in 2004 and am now Treasurer of the IIC. I became a member of the Executive committee of WCF in 1993 and was Treasurer from the start of 1996 until the end of 2001.  Although born into and still an active member of the Church of England I am also an active member of liberal and radical groups of Christians and others who do not want that title.

TSUNAMI The day when the devil raised his ugly head From the bottom of the mighty sea-bed When he hissed and howled with the eyes all red Moved his giant arms in the watery spread From Sumatra to Sri Lanka and Indian shore Houses and cars and boats it tore The waves of the devil, Tsunami they called Terror it struck with grief untold And moved and moved the walls of water To far and wide, O the devil of slaughter! Seeing her sons and a little daughter Runs the mother to save her tiny totter But late it is as the fierce waves take the tall The blanket of death engulfs them all Screams the mother, screams little child In the mountain of debris all piled. It is the sea you can see everywhere Encompassing death and despair No house, no life, no mother, no child Drowned are the hands of tender loving care. See the carnage and shed a little tear But let not Tsunami spread any more fear. Let us rise and help those poor men Give them hope, and courage once again. Vinod Kapashi, Kenton, Middlesex

WCF Tsunami Memorial Service A WCF Tsunami  memorial service  was held at the Essex Hall, London. Rabbi Jackie Tabick had invited Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Brahma Kumari, Bahai and Christian speakers and Elizabeth Hills contributed excellent piano pieces. Richard Boeke read a Tsunami Poem he had written, followed by a symbolic trip to the seashore as those present came forward and took a shell.  Slips of paper were provided for those who wished to write the name of someone they had lost, and leave the slip of paper in the bowl of shells and pebbles on the table.  Vinod Karpashi, a Jain, then read a Tsunami Poem he had written, after which Jackie Tabick informed us that her son, Roni, was at Auschwitz for the 60th Anniversary of the liberation of the Camp.  The service closed with a song sung by the prisoners of Auschwitz. Roni Tabick's reflections on his visit to Auchwitz, and Vinod Kapashi's poem are in this edition of One Family.

WCF event: Moral Maze - the cost of your coffee

WCF held another of their highly successful events structured along the lines of the BBC 'Moral Maze' programme. On this occasion those present examined the vexed question of the morality of trade in basic agricultural goods with the less economically developed world. There was an Interfaith panel that comprised of Batul Sharif, Professor Gwen Griffith-Dickson and Rabbi Jackie Tabick. We were also delighted to welcome as our expert witnesses Anthony Heyes, Professor of Economics at the Royal Holloway College who specialises in this area, and Ali Kazimi who works for Barclays Global Investors.

Professor Heyes controversially suggested that the Fair Trade model does not, in the long term, help the farmers from falling into the poverty trap. He told us that there was far too much coffee produced on the world market, that the Fair Trade process cost too much for the benefits it brought to the farmers and that we would be far better off giving money to charities which already work in this area in order to help the farmers diversify. He told us that if this happened it would result in a far greater degree of prosperity for everyone, however, in the meantime and given both the present situation and a feeling of guilt, he too buys Fair Trade coffee!

Ali Kazimi talked more about the morality of the market in general and the way in which so many consumers in the West look for profits without considering the harm the companies they invest in might be doing to the environment or the chances of peace in the world or indeed the reduction of poverty. He suggested that too many people feel the need for over-consumption, considering luxuries as mere necessities. He said that instead we must concentrate on maintaining the dignity of human effort; we as consumers are making a choice every time we shop and we cannot deny the fact that the locus for moral agency must reside in the individual.

The panel and the audience together questioned our witnesses and brought teachings from our respective faiths that related to the topic, all of us stressing the interconnectedness of the world and its inhabitants and the need for education so we can act as proper stewards of the world.

Reflections on my visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau: Roni Tabick

It’s difficult to know what to say. “Have a good time in Poland,” my friends said to me, and then they stopped themselves. “I mean, I hope it’s a good experience.” What do you wish someone who’s making a trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau? What do you say? But in several ways, I did have a good time.

The student delegation was made up of a hundred people from around the world. Of them, ten people were from the UK, and I was asked to be one of those ten. It was a real honour to be asked, and so I put my essays and revision on hold and went off to Poland in the middle of term.

Our group was organised by UJS, the Union of Jewish Students, but not all of us were Jewish. There was a Sikh, a Hindu and a Muslim, all very glad to be there. If nothing else came out of this trip, it generated some excellent interfaith dialogue, and that cannot be a bad thing. I left Oxford by 7:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, heading for Luton Airport. There I met up with the rest of the group, almost all of whom I had not met before, and we set off to Krakow. Only we didn’t land in Krakow. Due to bad weather we were diverted to Warsaw, and landed there by mid-afternoon. Unfortunately, Poland is a large country, and the snow did not make the bus journey an easy one. It wasn’t until midnight that we finally arrived at our Krakow hotel. The kitchen had been locked, and we hadn’t had any dinner. There happened to be a twenty-four hour Tesco down the road, and so at 2.00 a.m. we ate a sort of picnic dinner. The next morning we got up at 5:45 a.m. Why am I telling you this? Because it explains why, after the ceremonies had taken place on Thursday, I was left strangely unmoved. I was exhausted, hungry and very cold; if you saw the television coverage you’ll have seen the snow. These things were larger in my mind than much of what took place. It wasn’t until Friday afternoon that it all hit me, and by then I was already back in Oxford. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

On Wednesday morning we got onto a coach and headed into the centre of town for the first ceremony of the day, held in a Krakow theatre. Here there were two hundred people, half of them students. Perhaps the most impressive part of the trip was being in a room with all those people and hearing them speak - people like Victor Yuschenko, Vladimir Putin, Moshe Katsav, Dick Cheney, Elie Wiesel and so on. Some of the most powerful

people in the world were there, marking the sixtieth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. I don’t remember much of what they said. Yuschenko spoke about how his father had been a prisoner of war in Auschwitz, and how he intends to rid the Ukraine of anti-Semitism. Despite the obvious signs of his recent poisoning, I found him a very impressive figure. Let’s hope he matches his words with actions. Putin also spoke about ridding his country of hatred, but I was more sceptical. Later on, I found myself chatting with a girl from Russia. She said that she hadn’t believed Putin either, and that you can’t trust him. “Russia doesn’t like the Jews,” she told me, “and so the Jews don’t like Russia.” Despite several rabbis and religious leaders addressing us, the man who spoke most about God was Dick Cheney. I found this quite interesting but not altogether unsurprising - Christians talk about God far more than Jews. It lasted over two hours, with many speeches, songs, pictures from Auschwitz and medals being presented to veterans who had fought in the Red Army and had liberated Auschwitz. I found it interesting but draining, especially since we were listening to most of the speeches through translators, who can be quite hard to follow. But when it was all done we piled into coaches and drove over to Birkenau. Along the route the police were out in force, stopping traffic and keeping an eye on security. In the towns and villages we passed through the people came out to watch the motorcade. I wonder what they made of it all, and where they were sixty years ago. The ceremony in the afternoon took place in Birkenau, beside the railway tracks. We stood outside in the snow for two hours listening to speeches delivered in languages I don’t understand - there were copies of the speeches in English but I couldn’t see one - and only a few things really moved me: the chief rabbi of the Israeli army singing El Malei Rachamim, the sound of the shofar, the words of the Kaddish, ringing out over the snow. And then we left. We sat around that night in our hotel and discussed the experience, and I said how I was feeling unaffected by it. I had a good time with the other people in my group. I enjoyed their company and the conversations we had. I enjoyed meeting students from around the world. But the actual ceremonies had not affected me, I said. Other people felt differently but it took me a day or two to catch up with them. I don’t think you can walk into Birkenau and emerge untouched. And even though I had been before, and had not felt it that afternoon, the horror of the place is inescapable, its challenge is universal. The old question remains unanswered, how could God let it happen? No response can ever be satisfactory. But more challenging to me is, how could humanity let it happen? How can people, not so different from you and I, be that cruel, be so inhuman? I have no answers but I know that we must always struggle with the questions. At the same time we cannot get lost in theology to the exclusion of getting stuck into the real world, ensuring that such a thing cannot happen again, to anyone, ever. This is the challenge of Auschwitz.

The Holocaust Memorial at Vad Vashem, Israel

It took until Friday afternoon for it to hit me, and by then I was surrounded by the Jewish Society in Oxford, singing songs for Shabbat. There I really felt the life still in the Jewish people. Despite everything we are still here, still singing. I spoke about my experiences to many people over the weekend, struggling to process what I had seen and felt - I think I’m still processing it, a week later. But I had a good time. I enjoyed myself a lot. I met some incredibly interesting people, from this country and from abroad, people of different faiths and cultures. And it was even good to be in that place, see it in the winter, in the snow. It is a black hole in our history, in many of our lives - but I’m glad I went.

May 3rd: A Special Day for WCF

5.00 p.m.: WCF Annual General Meeting. This will be followed by light

refreshments where you can come and meet the WCF committee and other

members, share fellowship and bring ideas for future programmes.

6.30 p.m.: The Annual Sir Francis Younghusband lecture. The 2005

Younghusband Lecture will be:

Devil's Triangle: Religion, Values and Politics

in a Religiously Plural World

by:

Harvey Cox

Hollis Professor of Divinity, Harvard University.

at:

Brahma Kumaris Global Co-operation House, 65 Pound Lane, London NW10 2HH.

The Global Co-operation House is twelve minutes walk from Dollis Hill underground station on

Jubilee Line, Chapter Road exit. Bus routes 226 and 206 to Pound Lane, and 6, 52, 98, 260, 266,

297,302 and 460 to nearby Willesden Bus Garage. There is a car park at the Global Co-operation

House.

Please, to assist with arrangements, let us know if you are coming. Please e-mail

agm@worldfaiths.org and state if you are arriving for the a.g.m at 5.00 p.m. or for the

Younghusband Lecture at 6.30 p.m.

Note: Membership of WCF is required for admission. There is a special membership of £5.00 for

students and a £7.50 special half-year introductory membership to the WCF. Annual membership

of WCF, with subscription to our international journal Interreligious Insight and One Family, is

£30.00.

WCF Discussion Group Have you logged onto the new WCF internet discussion group? As a member of WCF you are able to participate in this exciting new venture. You can ask questions, post information or just chat to other members of WCF. We would like to encourage all WCF members with internet access to use it. If you need any help at all, please e-mail: group@worldfaiths.org and the WCF administrator Tony Reese will be your guide.

Local Interfaith Events: Art and Spirituality: April 15-17: 'Mountains and Meditation'; a weekend workshop at Snowdonia. Cost £60. Further details: Telephone: 07957-286360, e-mail: adam.boutler@virgin. net Bath Interfaith Group: 13 April: 'The Kabbalah' by Peter Walters 11 May: 'Prejudice', a discussion evening 8 June: An invitation to attend worship followed by discussion. 11 July: Mystical Poetry with Shelagh James Further details: Telephone 01225-422252 Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution: April 11: 'Why won't God go away?': Prof Robin Dunbar May 9: 'Sikhism': Dr Catherine Robinson June 13: 'New Spirit from Old Wisdom': Revd Kevin Tingay July 11: 'Image and Identity': Revd Joanna Jepson Further details: M. Sturge, telephone 01225-310623 Bristol Inter Faith Group: April 13: 'Reflections on Interfaith Dialogue' by Jonathan Marshall, Director of Plymouth Religious and Cultural Resource Centre at The Apostle Room, Clifton Cathedral Church at 7.30 p.m. Further details: Telephone 0117-908-3831. British Friends of Neve Shalom. April 9-10: 'East Meets West', a weekend non-residential course addressing conflict through dialogue between different ethnic and religious groups at Pelham Primary School, Wimbledon. Further details: Raphael Gonley, telephone: 020-8545-0075 or e-mail rgonley@onetel.com Discursis: April 10: 'Muslim presence in Medieval Europe: Spain and Portugal' at Canning House Library, 2 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8PJ at 10.30 a.m. Speakers: Dr Roger Collins, University of Edinburgh and Dr Abdool Karim Vakil, Kings College, London University. Further details: P.O. Box 33320, London NW11 9FS or website: www.discursis.org

IARF: July 21-24: 'Recognizing our Neighbours - Religious Tolerance in Shared Societies'. A Europe and Middle East conference in Romania. Further details see IARF website: www.iarf.net Leeds Interfaith Fellowship. April 12: 'Where do we go from here: the future of interfaith activity'. A visit to Bradford concord at the Interfaith Education Centre, Listerhills Road at 7.30 p.m. Further details: Marjorie Waterman: 01274-731674 London Interfaith Centre, 125 Salusbury Road, London NW6 6RG. April 24: 'An Inter Faith Book at Bedtime..for Grown Ups' from 6.30 p.m. to 8.30 p.m. May 1: 'Sacred Silence' from 3.30 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. May 3: 'Music from the Faiths' at 7.30 p.m. Further details: info@londoninterfaith.org.uk Religions for Peace (UK). June 5: An inter-active workshop moving from dialogue to action for peace and justice in London from 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. Further details: Brian Walker, telephone 01962-774221 or e-mail: hopeis@btinternet.com Suffolk Inter-Faith Resource: April 7: 'What do faiths teach about Health?' April 12: 'Christian/Muslim dialogue: human rights.' April 16: 'Living Christianity', speaker Rosemary Pickering. April 19: Christian/Muslim dialogue: Justice and the Rule of Law. April 26: Christian/Muslim dialogue: Governance and Democratic Society. May 3: Christian/Muslim dialogue: Globalisation and Consumerism. May 19: Forum on Faiths: 'What do the Faiths teach about Sex and Sexuality? May 21: 'Japanese Buddhism', speaker Tessa Triumph June 18: 'Faces of Islam'. Further details: Telephone 01379-678615 or 01473-343661