peace

Dangers:

One danger is that international bodies, instead of listening to the prophetic words of religious leaders, will try to give a cloak of respectability to their work by inviting a token presence of such leaders. Religious leaders need to recruit staff with the necessary expertise in relevant areas. Leaders will also have to beware of attending so many international gatherings that they lose touch with local faith communities, so leaving the latter open to the influence of religious extremists. It is vital that as international inter-religious co-operation increases so local communities at the same time learn about other religions and meet members of them.

Sometimes people complain that there are now too many interfaith groups. In fact there is more than enough work for all of them to do - locally, nationally and internationally; but that work needs to be co-ordinated, as the International Interfaith Centre is trying to do, and it requires far greater material resources. Just as the nations are reluctant to release finance for international activity so the religions prefer to spend money on themselves rather on co-operative ventures. But only together will the great faiths make available the spiritual resources which they have to offer for the healing of the world.