Clerics Cast for Strategies on Stemming Violence : Religion: Jewish, Christian and Muslim members of interfaith group hold idea sessions at Crystal Cathedral.

Using flip charts and red felt-tip markers, church leaders from across the country sat on folding chairs at the Crystal Cathedral on Monday night and Tuesday, deliberating on nationwide causes and cures for violence.

Muslim, Jewish and Christian leaders, working in groups of 10, came up with lists of thoughts and ideas. One of the working groups topped its list of causes with “lack of values.” Other groups sat inside the cathedral’s arboretum and outside on the grass, making similar lists and sharing their ideas.

The 80 clerics who attended the meeting are members of Churches Uniting in Global Mission, a coalition formed three years ago to involve religious leaders in seeking ways to halt the escalation of violence in modern society. Now it includes about 200 pastors in the United States and Canada who want to reach out to those disenfranchised by society and the church--those who are often responsible for violence.

The group is the first of its kind in the history of Christianity, according to its executive director, the Rev. David Tyler Scoates. But like other leaders who spoke at a press conference Tuesday morning about the group’s goals, he did not have answers to the problem, saying he had come with questions and an open mind.

Scoates, who has been a United Methodist minister for 36 years, said most of the conference would be devoted to listening to speakers and exchanging ideas. “We know some people are doing a job . . . in combatting violence,” he said, adding that he hopes to put some of their ideas into a national clearinghouse that all members of the group can tap into.

Another goal is to reach those responsible for violence. “We’re not just talking about, ‘We’re going to (preach) Sunday morning,’ ” said Robert Brown, a public relations executive from North Carolina who came up with the plan to meet. “We have to reach out to people and go to the highways and byways,” visiting those disaffected by religious teachings, he said.

Brown, a member of the Crystal Cathedral’s board, came up with the suggestion that the interfaith group be formed three years ago, after approaching Crystal Cathedral leader Robert Schuller to find out how religion could help stop black men from killing each other. Schuller then hired Scoates, who recruited other pastors in the United States and Canada, and is recruiting in Russian churches as well, he said.

Scoates called the need to curb violence an emergency, and said that most people he knew had family members who had been affected by it.

Schuller says there are no ready answers. “The Roman Catholic Church is not going to solve the violence problem. Robert Schuller is not going to solve (it). The Jews can’t solve it. The Muslims can’t solve it,” he said. “We are trying to convert people from coalition to coalition, not from one faith to another. . . . We’re not trying to replace anybody. We’re just trying to do what needs to be done.”