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A narrative report by
Thomas H. Jeavons
General Secretary
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends

May 2, 2003

(Click here to read the entire full texts of the "Urgent Call" and "Words of Reflection" that was produced by this summit. Click here to add your support to these statements.)

Imagine, if you can, a hotel meeting room in Chicago filled with 70 religious leaders - heads of denominations, ecumenical officers, leaders of prominent congregations - from all over the United States. In this group are 18 Muslims, 8 Jews, 40 Christians of wide variety (Catholic, Orthodox, various Protestants), as well as a few Hindus and a Buddhist. Busy schedules have been changed and travel plans altered so this assembly can gather on only a few weeks notice.

We gathered the first night to break bread together and get to know one another. We sat at tables of ten, and we talked about our various practices for blessing food and giving thanks in our homes and congregations. This gave us a chance to get a sense of each other, and a feeling for the richness of our different traditions.

After our meal each person in the room spoke very briefly about who they were and why the wanted to be part of this conversation. Many spoke about how painful watching the violence of the last few months had been; and many spoke of the hope that we could steer our people and our country onto a
different path. At the end of the evening Bob Edgar, General Secretary of the National Council, gave each of us some ideas he had been considering for a statement we might write and affirm together, and we had that to reflect on overnight.

The next morning we came together again as a large group for a brief time of prayer and reflection. Then we broke into smaller groups to talk further about our hopes for the future; how we might build a stronger foundation for interfaith work on issues of justice and peace; and what (if anything) we
might want to say about those matters now. After more than an hour, we divided into one smaller group that worked on drafting a statement for the whole; and a larger group that focused on how we could help make the religious community in this country a stronger voice for justice and peace.

The drafting committee (of which I was a part) brought a statement - drafted as an open letter to our own communities - back to the group at lunch time. The next hour-and-a-half was spent discussing, editing, and finally asking whether we were yet ready to speak together. In the end we decided we were, and the revised statement was finalized with the active approval of most of those present, and taken to a press conference that had been pre-arranged.

At that press conference Rev. Bob Edgar, Rabbi David Saperstein (Director of the Reformed Jewish Action Center), and Dr. Sayeed Mohammed Sayeed (General Secretary of the Islamic Society of North America) made statements. Then all of us responded to questions from the press. Finally, a number of us were interviewed individually by different reporters.

What occasioned this remarkable, probably unique meeting of U.S. religious leaders? We were called together by the three key Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders just named. We came together to accept President Bush's challenge to religious leaders to be the "voice of conscience in this
nation." And, as the open letter we drafted together says, we gathered in recognition that our nation has arrived at "an urgent moment of choice.... We face choices between hope and courage or fear and violence; between a future characterized by global solidarity, international cooperation and multilateral action, or one characterized by unilateralism, wars by choice rather than necessity, continuing terrorism, unfettered efforts to extend U.S. power, and the exploitation of fear."

As different as our backgrounds and faith traditions are, we came together understanding there is a common core in each of our religious visions that call all of us to seek the best for, and love and care for, every other human being. We came together knowing that each of our traditions teach us
to envision of world of peace with justice; and each affirms the promise that God will transform and heal our suffering world through our love and good works if we will follow divine teaching. And we came together believing that our nation should see this present moment not so much as a
time to celebrate a military victory - the real outcomes of which are not yet known - but rather a time for reflection on the costs of the wars our government has been waging and the policies it seems bent on pursuing.

The most obvious of these costs, as we see and experience them in our various communities, and in our nation and our whole human family, include:

• Many human lives lost. These are not only the lives of American,
  British and Iraqi soldiers, but also the lives of thousands of Iraqi
  civilians - many of them women and children - which the U.S. media has
  almost completed ignored.
• The loss of resources for critical human and social needs in our
  communities. Problems in housing, healthcare, and education get worse and
  worse while billions and billions of dollars are diverted from human
  services to military spending.
• The erosion of civil liberties. Our rights and freedoms are being
  curtailed in an accelerating way as our government promotes a pervasive
  culture of fear in the name of "homeland security."
  

We came together as religious leaders, ultimately, to ask all people of faith - indeed, all the people of this nation - to join us and others in their communities in reflecting on what kind of future we want for ourselves and our children; and on what kind of world our government's present policies are leading us toward. We talked to one another passionately, listened to one another carefully, and asked ourselves these kinds of questions:

- Do we want to be part of a nation that is best known for its moral
vision, compassion and fairness; or one that is widely seen as a power
hungry, self-serving, international bully?

- Do we want to be part of a nation where the care of "the poor, the widow,
the orphan and the stranger" -- where the needs of those most vulnerable,
whom all our traditions tells us should be our first priority -- are
continually set aside as our resources are devoured by military spending?

- Do we want to leave our children a nation saddled with enormous debts;
debts we have incurred paying for our military adventures and hardware (and
tax cuts) even while crucial investments in human capital and social
infrastructure are not made?

- Do we want to be part of an international community where all nations
subject themselves to international law, so that disputes can be resolved
without war; or one where war is increasingly likely and frequent because we
have actively undermined international mechanisms for diplomatic and
nonviolent resolution of conflicts?

- Do we really believe we make ourselves more secure by behaving in ways
that only reinforce our image in the world as a country willing to trample
on the rights and cultures of others, abrogate treaties, and ignore
international law whenever we choose to forward our own interests?

We know that each of our religious traditions teach us to see every other human being as a child of God of infinite worth, as a neighbor to be cared for, as a brother or sister to be loved. In a world where our interdependence with others is now unavoidable and undeniable, we believe that must learn to work with other to reach solutions to the many challenges we face as "the human family."

Since we are committed to being a voice of conscience in this nation, as religious leaders we recognized that we need to challenge our government to pursue policies that foster the welfare and respect the dignity of all people; that strengthen international bodies which make nonviolent
resolution of international conflict possible; and that create the conditions where justice and lasting a peace is possible. For such policies reflect the moral principles that are at the core of all our religious traditions; and those principles are truly the foundation of whatever greatness America has experienced in the past, and may yet experience in the future.

Let me add a personal note in conclusion. I have tried to capture here the process and the sense of the conversations that unfolded in the 20 very intense hours this group was together. Much more was said, obviously more than could be captured briefly; and many themes and ideas emerged around on which their were differing points of view - and even divisions. Nonetheless, it was striking that at this gathering of significant leaders from such diverse traditions so many: (1) shared such similar concerns about the direction our culture and country is going, and (2) saw so clearly a different path that all our traditions point to as truer and better.

There was also a powerful sense, which I found most encouraging, that all of us truly wanted to see this kind of dialogue and effort to act together continue - at the local level as well as the national level, in order that the religious community in this country might really become a clear voice of conscience. I hope we as Friends will accept the challenge to be an active part of that.

Thomas H. Jeavons
General Secretary, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

Visit http://www.ncccusa.org/news/03news51.html to read the entire full texts of the "Urgent Call" and "Words of Reflection" that was produced by this summit.

Visit http://www.ncccusa.org/response/signoninterfaith.html to add your support to these statements.

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