TRAVELLER’S TALES MILES HOWARTH missed this year’s SoF conference. He was in Vancouver for the World Conference of the International Association for Religious Freedom, which SoF could contribute to — and learn from.
Doing without Mr Frxit conference would just have finished. In Vancouver, 6000 miles away, the morning had just begun. The Musqueam Indians welcomed us to their sacred land, still resentful of its desecration by the white man. Shinto priests in exotic Japanese hats performed purification rituals prior to invoking cosmic powers. A 16-piece Buddhist orchestra of pipes, drums and gongs punctuated chanting from the Lotus Sutra. Muslims from Egypt chanted for us their favourite verses to Allah, confident of their significance for all humanity. A unique opportunity, only once every three years.
I thought of you back home — the Western philosophy, the preoccupation with words. My home comfort zone. What had brought me to this world conference of an Association active since 1900? Was I wasting precious time and misusing the earth’s energy reserves for mere religious tourism? How much could I hope to understand in five intensive days, or approve, or find personally helpful? Not withstanding a backpack of goodwill, mine and theirs, would my Puritan soul eventually rebel?
I thought of you back home: of Don Cupitt’s “Culture is becoming fully globalised; but we do not yet have any global religious vocabulary” (After God).
Might IARF be just the sort of network where it could be developed? “The new religion will dispense with the natural/supernatural dichotomy,” writes Lloyd Geering (Does Society Need Religion?). “The natural world itself will be treated as sacred.” The conference theme was “Creating an Earth Community — a Religious Imperative”. Some 600 people had gathered. For those from poorer countries, the cost was said to be equivalent to that of a year’s study. Was it to discuss theological issues in depth?
Barely practical, given the language diferences. To proselytise? But interfaith implies mutual respect for the religious truth found in diverse expressions of faith.
You don’t come just to tell others they've got it wrong.
I guess few in Vancouver would have claimed the existence of a realist God - a supernatural Mr Fixit. Non-Christians are | ee of you back home. The SoF less likely to be troubled by Greek dualist philosophy creating problems of religious realism. Many are struggling with other problems, such as their religion being bound up with race or territory. Most would say with Harold Rosen, “I cannot know ‘God’ except indirectly through the intricate natural creation, through spiritual teachers and exemplars, and through the wisdom of the ages recorded in many cultures, traditions and faiths” (Universal Questions: Exploring the Meaning of Existence).
The intellectualised workshop activity was useful for analysis, but not for synthesis. The unifying factor - why people bother about religion — is a matter of the emotions, the search for spirituality and interpersonal transformation. Liberal ideas, amply evident - open inquiry, respect for human dignity, reverence for life - are seen to flow from the religious process, but are not themselves the motivator.
So all these people see their own forms of religion as better than none. You back home, do you want Sea of Faith to be a means for reforming what Christianity has become, or a means of escaping from it?
Or should we be seeking new expressions of commitment and purpose? If so, we might have something both to learn from and to contribute to such interfaith encounters.
Miles Howarth is a Unitarian and a directordesignate of the SoF Trust.