Bishop’s Mission Is Forum for the Faiths

The idea took shape on a sleepless night several years ago, after California Episcopal Bishop William Swing was asked to gather religious leaders for the United Nations’ 50th anniversary commemoration in San Francisco.

“It struck me profoundly that the nations of the world have been moral enough to get together to struggle for global good for 50 years, and in those same 50 years the religions of the world hadn’t spoken to each other,” said Swing, who pledged the rest of his life to the task.

Tonight, Swing will address the third annual Religious Diversity Faire at UC Irvine on his plan for a United Religions--a body of religious leaders who would communicate daily on moral issues, take action to mediate religious disputes and address areas of greatest human need.

With his wife, Mary, and a laptop computer at his side, the 60-year-old Swing has traveled the world since February on mostly borrowed funds, pitching the United Religions Initiative to key religious leaders such as the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He has also met less-renowned Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Jewish and Buddhist leaders, as well as the heads of more obscure religious and spiritual movements.

Swing aims to bring 200 of the world’s religious and spiritual leaders together next June in San Francisco to draft a charter that would further outline the organization’s goals. A charter signing is scheduled for 2000.

Swing, bishop of the San Francisco-based Diocese of California--which once covered the entire state but now oversees only the greater Bay Area--acknowledges that the idea of a worldwide religious body has been mulled since the late 19th century, without fruition.

But now, three years after the fierce “out of the blue” conviction, Swing’s mission is well in motion.

The United Religions Initiative’s San Francisco office is in high gear and several interfaith experts, including Robert Muller, a former assistant secretary general of the United Nations, have pledged their help to see the effort through.

Muller, now chancellor of the University of Peace in Costa Rica, has long proposed a similar body, but said many religious leaders considered it a betrayal of their faith. Now, he said, they are acknowledging that the time for a United Religions is ripe.

“They are all beginning to be worried about the loss of spirituality around the world,” Muller said in an interview from Costa Rica. “World corporations everywhere have globalized themselves. Nations have done it too, but with a certain reluctance. The ones who have not globalized themselves at all are the religions.”

Reaction to Swing’s concept generally has been favorable, but formal endorsements from official representatives of the world’s major religions have not yet followed.

The Dalai Lama repeatedly said, “Excellent” as Swing presented him with the initiative last spring, although the Buddhist leader also asked “many hard questions about organization and representation,” according to a log of reactions Swing compiled from his travels.

The Coptic Christian patriarch, Pope Shenouda III of Cairo, quoted from the story of Jonah, in which everyone prayed to their various gods in order to save their ship as it sank; Mother Teresa promised to get her colleagues praying for the United Religions; and the grand mufti of Egypt, Dr. Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, was one of many who vowed to send a delegation to the charter-writing session in June.

Not all supported the concept, however.

Roman Catholic Cardinal Francis Arinze of Rome shared grave concerns that “a United Religions would give the appearance of syncretism, . . . water down our need to evangelize . . . [and] force authentic religions to be on authentic footing with spurious religions,” Swing wrote.

Such concerns have long been at the heart of opposition to a United Religions.

However, in today’s post-Cold War era, with religious disputes at the root of many conflicts, a United Religions body could be crucial to world peace, experts said.

Theologians say that--like the United Nations--the United Religions likely will not accomplish all its goals, but could nevertheless have a significant impact on world affairs.

“He’s going to fight an uphill battle,” said Benjamin Hubbard, chairman of the Department of Religious Studies at Cal State Fullerton, who specializes in interfaith issues and is familiar with Swing’s initiative.

“I’m somewhat skeptical, but I think it’s an extremely worthy endeavor. I think he’s a visionary, and his group has a chance of measured success--not total.”

Swing said he hopes the concerns of skeptics can be addressed.

For now, he is about $80,000 in debt, but confident that new donations will soon flow. He declined to identify his private donation sources. The Rev. Charles Gibbs, executive director of the United Religions Initiative, said the organization needs $1.5 million beyond the $200,000 it has raised to get through next summer’s charter-writing workshop.

Swing has attracted national attention in the past for standing up for his beliefs, gaining notoriety in the late 1980s for his work with people with AIDS.

“He is someone with a profound sense of the importance of community,” Gibbs said. “He not only is not afraid to move out in front, he is compelled by his own sense of call to do that, but to do it in a way that doesn’t create opposing camps.”

But none of his previous work has entailed such heavy travel.

Stops this year have included China, India, Pakistan, the Middle East, Turkey, Europe, Japan, Korea, and, last week, Paris to meet with Jewish, Christians and Muslim leaders.

More than 700 people have already expressed an interest in attending the charter writing, Swing said, although the number will be pared to 100 representatives of the so-called Great Religions and 100 leaders,including artists and scientists, of modern spiritual movements.

Until then, Swing will hold 10 workshops around the world in part to hear from those who will be unable to send a delegation to San Francisco.

The sites include Argentina, Kenya, Egypt, and New Zealand, to work with a Maori group. Cleveland, New York and Washington are also on Swing’s schedule.

The charter will be refined as participants take information back to their communities, said Swing, who plans to rely heavily on the Internet to get the word out. Information on the initiative is available at https://www.United-Religions.org.

A charter signing is envisioned for June 26, 2000, scheduled to coincide with rallies for peace among religions in villages, towns and cities worldwide.

“Here we are on the verge of the first global civilization and the only player of significance that hasn’t come to the table is religion,” said Swing.

“It’s just very clear that there’s never going to be peace among nations until there’s peace among religions.”

Swing will speak at 7:30 p.m. at the third annual Religious Diversity Faire at the UC Irvine Student Center, which will include workshops, food and exhibits representing more than a dozen faiths. The Faire begins at 12:30 p.m.

Information: (714) 362-3999.