A week or so ago I was in Kazakhstan again with Jinja Honchō for the eighth Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. This year the Pope wasn’t there, but we did have a cardinal, the two Chief Rabbis of Israel, the Patriarchs of Moscow and Jerusalem, and numerous representatives of the Islamic world, from Iran to Indonesia. There were also representatives of Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and us, for Shinto. In total, there were 101 delegations, and the event was chaired by the President of Kazakhstan.
Jinja Honchō has been involved in these meetings since the first one, in 2003, which had only 17 delegations. The main congress is held every three years, with meetings of the Secretariat in the intervening years. Since last year, a Forum for Young Religious Leaders (“Let’s say under 40”, according to Revd Jo Bailey Wells, who was chairing it this year) has also been part of the program. Jinja Honchō participates in all of these, although finding someone under 40 in Japan is hard enough, never mind within Shinto. (I exaggerate. Slightly.)
These meetings are not fora for in-depth discussion. For example, the minutes of the Secretariat are written in advance of the meeting, and agreed as the final item of the agenda. Rather, the delegates take turns to give speeches, and have everyone applaud politely. Nevertheless, I think these meetings are very important.
First, we had high-level representatives from Judaism and Islam in the same room. They gave speeches with rather different takes on the Gaza crisis, and all got polite applause. Nobody walked out. The only time the table was thumped was when someone was repeating “We want peace!”. That is, I think, important in itself. The religious leaders are acknowledging, and demonstrating, the importance of peaceful contact between religions by actually doing it, despite the difficult situation.
On the other hand, I do not think it will make any contribution to ending the Gaza crisis. The religious leaders are not in a position to put direct pressure on the people who can, and in any case it was clear from their speeches that they have different ideas as to what needs to happen. But I do think that this will be important to picking up the pieces and seeking reconciliation after the crisis has ended. At that point, religious leaders will be the right people to provide moral leadership on what happens next. And since they are talking to each other now, they are unlikely to stop, and they will have the opportunity to speak to each other without needing to make a special appointment. Similarly, the contacts between religious leaders happening here may be playing a role in preventing crises in another part of the world, and if it is effective, we will never know.
That, generalised, is another benefit of the meeting — it provides an opportunity for religious leaders to meet, no matter how separate their normal spheres of operation are. That works better if they share a language, though.
It is also good for Jinja Honchō. Apart from me, everyone in our delegation was there for the first time, and they found it quite eye-opening. There is almost no chance to encounter Muslims in Japan, for example, and even less chance to hear them speak. The presentations at the Young Leaders’ Meetings also presented a challenge, because those people were doing more than most people in Jinja Shinto. Indeed, our main representative attended that just to listen, and his reaction was that he hoped that the younger generation in Shinto would take action.
It is impossible to say what changes there might be in Jinja Shinto as a result of this, but last time’s Congress led directly to the dropping of the informal rule that Jinja Honchō did not send female staff overseas, and this time the representative to the Secretariat was female — so it could lead to symbolically significant changes faster than you might expect.
I think it is well worth holding the meeting, and well worth Jinja Honchō sending representatives.