August 2oo3 Report: An Interreligious Council at the United Nations Page 1 of 15

August 2oo3 Report on:

An Interreligious Council at the United Nations

Document 1: The World at a Turning Point

Document 2: Chairman’s Report
Document 3: Interreligious Council Initiative Report
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The World at a Turning Point:

The Interreligious Imperative
Frank Kaufmann, August 2003

In 1993, religious riots broke out throughout India. Hindus and Muslims were virtually in a
state of war over violations at the sacred site of Ayodhya. IRFWP staged a march to bring
peace to India. In 1991 the IRFWP consulted with the US, with the Soviet Union, and with
Arab Nations. We came within a hairs breadth of preventing the war altogether, but
nevertheless had a great impact to shorten the war’s duration, and to urge reconciliation in
the aftermath.

The turning point for the modern development of seeking interreligious dialogue was the 1893
Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago. The event was predominantly Christian, but
the notion of mutual respect with other religions shows up here for the first time in any large
formal expression. The big achievement was the introduction of the notion that religions
should “tolerate” each other! 50 years later, there arises an interfaith counterpart to the spirit
of international cooperation linked to the emergence of the United Nations. This shows itself
in a number of important and eventually well known organizations closely linked to the
United Nations and this time. The ideal for interreligious relations moves beyond the earlier
more limited notion of tolerance to the more elevated ideal of respect. Not only respect, but
perhaps far more importantly, the concept of cooperation came about. The ideal of
cooperation means that members of different faiths actually begin to work together.

No radically new ideas arose from within the interfaith movement until the advent of the new
millennium when it was thought that religions could successfully chart a shared future of
respect and cooperation by looking to “democracy” as the paradigm for fruitful and healthy
relations (among religions)

The current crisis is that despite genuine progress in the interfaith movement, the number of
conflicts and wars which have a religious element is as great as ever, and the intensity and
consequences of these conflicts is greater than ever. This state of conflict, and the reputation
for being so little able to contribute to the global longing for peace, results in the religious
world utterly forfeiting their responsible position to lead as peacemakers in world events.

We have seen that the fixation on one’s own tradition, without the natural expansion of
mission in the world for good, leads to corruption and an inbred obsession with the protection
of a narrow tradition.

This boxing oneself in, and falling behind the natural evolution of human consciousness
which seeks one harmonious world, results in making religions irrelevant, and without a
proper God given mission to improve human affairs. In response to this, the interfaith world
has not shown sufficient imagination to respond in a systematic and purposeful way. The
result is that there are many interfaith conferences, but no clear organizational vision for a
sustained future of interreligious relations. The best one sees are isolated events which cause
some excitement for a short time, but no evidence of careful, long term planning
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Often interfaith organizations chase around the globe trying to find “hot topics” and grab onto
them becoming more event-oriented. These might or might not be helpful, but they do not
solve the problem of pursuing a systematic and carefully developed project and initiative.

The proposed Religious Council at the UN, first mentioned by Dr. Moon to the United Nations
itself, in 1999, opens the door for an entirely new interfaith vision. First, all religions would
remain immediately present to one another throughout the entire time of seeking ongoing
cooperation. Second, the religions can begin to function more explicitly as representatives of
the world’s religions, rather than using the former cliché about generic equality, and no clear
representation for social direction. And finally, this novelty of formal representation on a large
scale, which is characteristic of this proposal, is augmented by the fact that representatives
stand in a formal and enduring position, rather than something only in passing

As religions take on increasingly important and public roles through the experience on the
interreligious council they work out the best details for good cooperation. There would then
exist in the United Nations a place specifically devoted to deep conversation, dialogue, and
debate - a process which will restore to religion is status and dignity. This recovered status
and dignity returned to religion carries with it the all important recovery of religions Moral
Authority. Finally religion regains not only its secondary blessing to represent the moral
conscience of human affairs, but also its true purpose, namely to return to religion its spiritual
power over charting an ideal interreligious future.

Frank Kaufmann
August, 2003
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Special Consultative Committee

Chairman's Report
Report by Frank Kaufmann

August 2003

The Special Consultation of the Interreligious Council Initiative was a 3 part initiative
beginning approximately two weeks before the beginning of the August, IIFWP Seoul Summit.
The two weeks prior included building and convening the team, as well as creating
preparatory documents to guide the on site deliberations.

All committee member received clear guidelines for the task before leaving for Seoul, and all
were asked so far as possible to create written materials for presentation in Seoul.

In the end the committee consisted of 16 members (including the

rapporteur) plus the chairperson. These people were chosen based on several criteria: 1. An
attempt was made to have all religions represented. 2. An attempt was made to have only
committee members who were theologically and intellectually skilled, and familiar with the
difficult and highly focused conversation and processes necessary to produce texts.

By the grace of God, both criteria were well fulfilled. Committee members included Catholic,
Protestant, Orthodox, Hindu, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, Confucianist, Sikh (9 religious
traditions!). It also had 10 nations represented! (These very high numbers of representation,
both religiously and internationally, will prove very valuable to give the document strength
and credibility. Since so many religious traditions were able to reach full consensus (with NO
dissent) even on the very thorny and difficult issues, it will be difficult for anyone to argue
against the content. The document carries the authority of some very highly influential, and
highly experienced religious leaders.

The group tackled what many would have imagined an overly ambitious agenda. We covered
every single item on a fairly thorough approach to defining proposals for the IC: These
include:
1. Vision, Purpose, Goals
2. The Relationship of the IC to 5 point mission of the United Nations
(namely Conflict and Peace, Human Rights, Sustainable Development (including
Environment and Poverty Reduction), Education, and Aid and Disaster Relief
3. Governance issues, including:
a. Membership, Representation, and Process of Selection,
b. Types of Offices and terms of Office Holders
c. Functions and Powers of the Council
d. Procedures, Decision-making process
e. Agenda
f. Location, Funding

On many issues different members of the committee started very far from each other.
Theology and experience have a great influence on how people view things. The reason why
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the committee members were able to overcome such huge differences of opinion, was because
everyone in the room was committed to the higher good. No one was there to push an agenda.

Everyone wanted to make this thing work. As a result, without even realizing it, the members
of the committee created a miracle. They created a document with fully agreed upon language
in just a few hours!!

At the UN even a single paragraph can take half a year! The WHOLE difference was that
everyone wanted more to serve God, than to fight for a personal agenda.

By trying to work together to make a draft proposal for what an IC would be like. The
committee members accidentally proved the precise point about what an IC is all about. The
religion leaders were able on the basis of living for the public purpose accomplish a
sophisticated and difficult task, requiring heated debate and dialogue, as well as requiring
expertise and extensive knowledge on matters of organization, and implementation.

The group grew close to one another. There was nothing but love despite many hard
arguments. And they were proud, excited, felt good, and wanted to do more.

Special thanks goes to the great skill and sacrificial devotion of Dr. Thomas Ward who did the
drafting which kept the project moving forward at such a rare pace.

Frank Kaufmann
August 2003
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Special Consultation on the Inter-Religious Council Initiative

Seoul Hilton
Seoul, Korea
August 11-16, 2003

Dr. Frank Kaufmann, Chair

Rabbi Roberto Arbib
Rev. Dr. Clinton Bennett
H.G. Geevarghese Mar Coorilos
Dr. Guillermo Francisco Reyes Gonzalez
Mr. Shrivatsa Goswami
Rev. Dr. David Alan Hart
Dr. Cheryl Lau
Swami Medhasananda
Grand Imam Sayyed Mohammed Musawi
Mr. Zia Rizvi
Singh Sahib Bhai Manjit Singh
Rev. Junsei Terasawa
Dr. Aarne Toivanen
Prof. Xianping Zhang
Dr. Thomas J. Ward, Rapporteur
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Foreword
Much of the effort exerted until now in seminars, programs, and conferences on the creation
of an Inter-Religious Council at the United Nations has focused on 1.) the rationale for the
creation of such an entity and 2.) the strategy needed to bring the project to realization.

At the July Conference on the Inter-religious Council which took place in Cheonan, Korea,
numerous participants approached the leadership of the IIFWP emphasizing that there was
the need for a document outlining the vision, purpose, and goals of the Inter-Religious
Council and also introducing the guidelines for:

Membership.
Leadership of the Council
Functions and Powers of the Inter-Religious Council
Determining the Agenda of the Inter-Religious Council
Procedural Matters including the Decision-making process of the Council
Proposed location and method of funding the Council.

The Special Consultation on the Inter-Religious Initiative met throughout the IIFWP Summit
of World Leaders to produce a document reflecting the consensus of a multi-religious working
group of leaders, scholars, and intellectuals. They reached consensus on the Mission, Goals,
and Operating Principles of the proposed Inter-Religious Council that would be established as
a part of the United Nations. The simplicity of this document should not lead one to think
that this was a facile undertaking. This project required serious deliberations led by scholars
and religious leaders who were selected to participate in this committee because they were
deeply knowledgeable about the sensitivities and nuances that were hard won by the world’s
religious traditions. This report reflects a great deal of consensus and, on some issues, an
agreed upon range of viable approaches to the organization and governance of the Council.
Many of the recommendations in this text represent hours of reflection and deliberation
during and prior to the Conference from the scholars and people of many traditions who
participated in this committee. Keeping this in mind, the members of the committee have
asked that the recommendations of this document be taken seriously in formulating the
framework of the Council and noted that seemingly minor changes could upset the balance of
what was achieved through often difficult dialogue.

Dr. Frank Kaufmann

Chair
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Table of Contents
Preamble

Vision, Purpose, Goals of the Inter-Religious Council

Religion and the Mission of the United Nations

Governance of the Inter-Religious Council

A. Membership and the process of selecting members for the IC

B. Types of offices, terms of office and so forth for the IC
C. Functions and Powers of the Inter-Religious Council
D. Procedures, Decision making processes (Consensus? Majority etc.)
E. Agenda
F. Location, Funding
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Preamble of the Inter-Religious Council

In spite of the adoption of the UN Charter on the 24th of June 1945 major armed conflicts
have continued to bring untold sorrow to humanity, despite the best efforts of the United
Nations negotiate solutions and to promote peace among nations.

Many of the world’s peoples still do not live in freedom, enjoy self-determination, human
rights, or the basic necessities of life and there remains the need to address urgent problems
of an economic, social, cultural and humanitarian character.

In order to support, promote, and strengthen the work at the United Nations and foster
greater appreciation for its ends, its aims, our respective governments, through
representatives gathered at the United Nations General Assembly on September 18, 2003 who
have exhibited their powers, have agreed to present the Charter of the Inter-Religious Council
at the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as
the Inter-Religious Council at the United Nations that will fulfill the following roles:

To assist the UN in its aim of saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war, the
Council is committed to drawing on the resources, insights and commitments for peace of the
religious patrimony of humanity, recognizing that peace is not merely the absence of conflict
but that it includes the presence of freedom, justice, human rights and of those basic
resources that are necessary to sustain dignified human life. Those who gathered here also
fully acknowledge that religious faith has the potential to be misused by people to engender
hatred of the other.

To support the UN in establishing conditions under which justice and respect for the
obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained.

To collaborate with the UN in promoting social progress and better standards of life in larger
freedom recognizing that human life has a spiritual as well as a material dimension and that it
is necessary to harmonize these two dimensions.

To partner with other United Nations organs in achieving international cooperation and in
solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character and
encouraging respect for human rights, for universal moral values and for fundamental
freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.

The Inter-Religious Council will serve as a forum for transcending racial, cultural, national
and religious barriers and working towards a culture of peace in a unified world.

The IC will dedicate itself to the pursuit of harmony among the world’s religions.

In the furtherance of these ends, the Inter-Religious Council will:

Establish commissions and consultations to assist with working for a solution to particular
economic, social, cultural or humanitarian problems that confront humanity and the United
Nations.
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Work in partnership with UN agencies and through its network of interreligious associations,
religiously affiliated organizations and religious bodies at national and international levels to
work for the alleviation of poverty throughout the world.

Serve as resource to the UN Secretariat and the Security Council in negotiations when
disputes arise and peace is threatened, especially, although not exclusively, when such
confrontations can be characterized as being religious in nature.

Promote the adoption by member states of the UN of a Universal Ethic of Shared Values.

Work for the total abolition of war and for the restructuring for peace of the manufacture of
the means to wage war and of the mechanisms for waging war.

Seek to bring spiritual insights to bear on all aspects of the work, agenda and program of the
United Nations, working towards the establishment of a unified world of peace wherein the
spiritual and material dimensions of life are harmonized.
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The Mission and Goals of an Inter-Religious Council at the United

Nations
Mission of the Inter-Religious Council
The Inter-Religious Council of the United Nations serves as a vehicle through which the
United Nations can utilize the spiritual wisdom and resources of the world’s religions.
Through its deliberations and its outreach programs, it supports the UN’s efforts to address
the problems of our planet. The Council is committed to furthering dialogue and cooperation
among the world’s religions, recognizing that through dialogue the common ideals of the great
faiths provide the context for international cooperation and the furtherance of world peace.
The Council serves in an advisory capacity to the United Nations, recognizing that the UN’s
noble efforts for peace can be supplemented in these crucial times by the wisdom and
devotion of the world’s faithful.

Goal One: An IC would extend or expand the UN vision to incorporate religion into those
parts of the human experience that are essential to life in the world, including, e.g., the role of
women, the role of laborers, the commitment to sustainable development.

Outcomes:

The IC can encourage political bodies to act in a more sensitive and civil manner.

The IC can generate a dialogue among civilizations in a religious context.

The IC can impact on both the cognitive and affective dimensions of education.

Goal Two: The IC could advise extant bodies of the UN on conflicts that have a
spiritual/religious aspect.

Outcomes:

The IC can advise the Security Council, the General Assembly, and other UN organs
when proposed UN resolutions or actions challenge religious or social sensitivities.

The IC can help to provide vantage points to address problems that require perspective
and the ability to transcend the immediate challenges to understand their deeper
spiritual roots and the process whereby these can be addressed.

The establishment of an IC will strengthen the enlightened and irenic religious voice,
making it more possible to address the problems of violence and militancy in certain
communities.

An IC would augment the number of extant bodies that function in similar advisory
roles. This would include, e.g., UNESCO with its focus on educational, social, and
cultural issues.
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Goal Three: The IC would create create formal, enduring and permanent structures where
religions could respond to the growing need for inter-religious partnership.

Outcomes:

An IC will provide perspectives on how religion can address some of humanity’s most
concrete problems and improve their ability to serve and to tackle the misuse of
religion.

The IC can facilitate protocols for inter-religious communication and discourse. We

can anticipate the emergence of a new lexicon for the exchange of interreligious
concepts and viewpoints.

The IC will introduce elements of communication and assessment into religious

relations, through which religions learn to express themselves in a multi-religious
community.
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Religion and Mission of the United Nations

The IC recognizes central concerns in the United Nations to include Conflict and Peace,
Human Rights, Environment and Sustainable Development (including economic and social
development, and poverty reduction), Education, and Aid and Disaster Relief and in
formulating its agenda will take into consideration these noble tasks.

Governance of the Inter-Religious Council

A. Membership and the process of selecting members for the IC
Council members should be characterized by an exemplary commitment to inter-
religious harmony, universal peace, and the welfare of the whole.

1. Membership in the Inter-Religious Council should be open to all religions and faith
communities.
2. Membership in the Inter-Religious Council should not be determined by
governments but by the religions themselves..
3. Membership will require those petitioning to join to submit a succinct statement or
description of the belief that they represent.

B. Types and Terms of IC Office Bearers

1. The Leadership of the Council will consists of a President who will be elected by the
Council. An Executive head of the IC will be chosen in keeping with the spirit and
functions of the Council.
2. Representatives of the worldwide IC would be elected by regional chapters of the
Council. Decisions pertaining to Membership of the Council must take into account
and reconcile the Council’s commitment to inclusiveness on the one hand and the
influence of religious authorities on the question of representation on the other. The
criterion for membership must reconcile these realities.
3. The representatives of the worldwide IC would be elected for a two year period and
this would be staggered on a rotational basis.
4. The Council should have proper gender representation.

C. Functions and Powers of the Inter-Religious Council

1. The functions of the Council shall include collaboration, assistance, advice, and
support for program implementation.
2. The function of the Inter-Religious Council shall also include initiatives aimed at the
furtherance of inter-religious dialogue, education and cooperation.

D. Procedures and Decision-Making Processes

1. The Council will normally function on the basis of consensus.

2. The Council will normally not take a public position on a specific issue unless at
least ¾ of the members of the Council are in agreement on the issue under study. In
such cases, the argument for the minority views should also be indicated.
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3. When the Council can not reach consensus on a specific issue but some members of
the Council feel that they must speak out, they do so on an individual basis and not on
behalf of the Council.

E. Agenda

1. The Annual Agenda will be determined by the Council, bearing in mind the agendas
of other principal organs and will be in compliance with the missions and goals of the
Council.
2. The Agenda of the Council will also be informed by the concerns of members of the
council, based on reports from the regional offices.
3. The Agenda will be circulated in advance and finalized one month prior to meeting,
except in the case of a regional or international emergency.

F. Location, Funding

1. The location of the Council is yet to be determined; however, one recommendation is

that members of the Council share a common living facility where the occasions for
dialogue, communication, and public events and education will be frequent.
2. Funding for the Council will be sought through both private and public sources
interested in supporting the IC initiative.
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Addendum
Session I: Chairman’s Opening Remarks
In our efforts to address the tasks before this committee, our expectations should not be to
produce a finished document available and ready to be distributed to the public. We want to
produce a text, which can provide guidelines for those engaged in the pursuit of an inter-
religious council at the United Nations (ICUN).

Genesis of the Project and Reverend Moon’s Theological Involvement

Reverend Moon sees himself as a religious teacher. One of the things that he holds to be true
is that the human being fell into spiritual disorder. Originally in human life, intentionality
and the response to it were to have been harmonious. There should not have been
contradictory impulses between mind and body.

The disorder resulted in an existential experience where our body quite simply resists the
intentionality of our higher mind on many occasions. This dilemma he holds to be writ large
characterizing all human endeavors, from the smallest to the largest social entities.
Individuals do not possess a harmonious mind-body relationship nor do the social institutions
created by such individuals.

The UN as a world organization is perhaps the social entity where this dilemma of division
between intentionality and results is writ largest so far. This dilemma can only be rectified
when when mind and body are harmonized with the ideal.

Thus this initiative for an interreligous council (IC) at the United Nations is not a new thought
or just an interesting idea. It is a natural extension of Dr. Moon’s theological anthropology.
People want to do good and to remove internal resistance and contradictory impulses. The
UN tries to bring about peace and development in the same way that you and I proceed to
attempt to do good on our own individual levels. In both cases there is the need to strengthen
the conscience so that the resistance to good intentions is diminished. In religion, this is
frequently realized through the exercise of certain spiritual disciplines.

It is the spiritual side of the self which generates the constant call to good. Even when I act
inappropriately, the spiritual element (conscience) reprimands me for acting in such a way.
Swami Vivekenanda compared the rebellious dimension of the mind as like unto the antics of
a drunken monkey who has been bitten by a scorpion.

Our world of religions can be compared to this monkey. We as a community of religions lack
the harmony needed to function as a world conscience. We need to pursue unity and
understanding in the religious sphere. We need to realize a foundation of harmony and unity
as religionists so that we can present ourselves to the UN as desirable leaders who can
function reliable in the conscience position balancing purely materialist approaches to
problem solving.
Frank Kaufmann
August 2003