United Nations, New York. Rt. Rev. William E. Swing addresses the High Level Conference on Interfaith Cooperation at the United Nations on the International Day of Peace, September 21, 2006.

Any current newspaper reader has to be struck by the rise in religiously motivated violence.  An editorial page cartoon or a scholarly papal lecture can have the potential of setting off incendiary responses.  Burning houses of prayer might be the charge that explodes a country into civil war.  Madrid, London, New York – these cities mentioned together bring to mind the fact of the worldwide religion-inspired terror.  Clearly there is an acceleration of individuals across the world participating in violent inter-religious and intra-religious clashes.

That is part of the main inter-religious story today.  The other part is an opposite reaction.  There is an acceleration of individuals all over the world participating in non-violent, peace-making inter-religious events and dialogues.  Organizing models to make this happen are being created daily, spontaneously.  These models rarely make newspaper headlines because interfaith work is, at heart, an investment in the earth’s future.  Its impact is long-range.  Although in the near future interfaith forums may well become an immediate agency for addressing urgent civil matters.  Religion and civil society are deeply intertwined, as we are relearning.    

Inter-religious potential for violence will not be solved by military weapons or police action or the total conversion of everyone into one particular religion or another.  As the Scotland Yard inspector said after the subway bombing in London, “this can only be solved ultimately by the community.”  The community – in jungles, suburbs, inner-city or nation – the community absolutely must arrive at a place of healthy dialogue and common constructive action, everywhere.    

What I admire so much about this High Level Conference on Interfaith Cooperation is that it raises to high visibility the local interfaith initiatives that make life livable, civilization attainable, and peace possible.

I represent only one of the multiple religious NGO’s of the United Nations.  On a daily, enduring basis, we – the United Religions Initiative – self-organize into grass roots Cooperation Circles, made up of individuals of various religions, indigenous and spiritual traditions. There are such Circles in 65 nations now, which wherever possible carry out practical agendas, locally inspired.  We clean up rivers, write appropriate interfaith education materials for children, build houses for the poor, deliver supplies in emergencies, play a role in peace talks, gather healing clusters for women whose children have been harmed in sectarian violence—and on and on.  We have over 340 Cooperation Circles