Changemakers who inspired my path in Interreligious Dialogue

This fifth edition is about who has inspired you in your changemaking journey. It has been great to meet some of you and communities of changemakers as I travel worldwide. The Vatican’s global office for interreligious dialogue celebrates its 40th anniversary, and they have published my journey in this field; find it here. This edition is presented here as part of the Creative Change Newsletter, which now has 30,000 changemakers subscribed to it! Join the conversations on Creative Change here .

Hey Changemaker Family!

How are you, wherever you are? We continue to see incredible growth, we are now a 30,000-strong community! We are doing this journey together, and I will continue to share my updates based on my meetups with the community!

1st University library received the gifting of the book - Universitas Prasetiya Mulya

A number of you have responded positively to this idea; one subscriber named San even has a novel idea to donate the book to help incarcerated men in prison achieve more in their lives and become changemakers. I love the idea, and my team has followed up. For more gifting proposals to universities, email [email protected]

On the first gifting to a university, thanks to Belynda Netya Alleluia , I managed to gift this to the Vice-Dean of the business school: Deddi Tedjakumara . The first of many universities to ignite more changemakers for the future.

We also had a long exchange about Indonesia’s rich culture and how that can contribute to shaping creative ways of seeing leadership development with new eyes. Looking forward to be back.

While in Indonesia, I met many amazing young changemakers

One particular group is Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia , thanks to Clara Clarissa , I got to know their extensive work in peace-building and interreligious friendships through the 1000 Abrahamic Circles led by Dino Patti Djalal . And I agree with this quote!

Next Stop, St. Edmund Hall, University of Oxford, 1st of August

My next stop is the 英国牛津大学 , where I will give a talk on the Economy of Communion on August 1st at 3 p.m. I am grateful for the invitation by Dr. Rey, Rey-Sheng Her Associate Scholar, Harvard University FAS CAMLab and Deputy CEO of Tzu-Chi Foundation (Singapore) . It will be a fascinating discourse on the subject of the Economy of Goodness.

I will be meeting other changemaker friends in Oxford and London from 1st till 4th of August. So if you are there, come say Hi!

Now, read the article that has been included in the 40th anniversary of Vatican’s Office for Interreligious Dialogue.

Let me know which changemaker has inspired you in your path.

Asia – Singapore: A Lived Story from the Youth

SINGAPORE - It was hot and humid, but we did not mind as almost 200 of us, youth and religious leaders, walked in a meandering manner for peace towards our final meeting point, the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd. We were gathered as youths of different religions to be a sign of hope and unity in a march for peace, a rarity in Singapore. Amidst laughter and banter, we had spent three days together in a camp, getting to know each other. This event was a youth for peace camp held in 2000, organized by the Catholic Church to get to know young people of different religions and promote peace from the dialogue of life approach. For me, it was another eye-opener because while the Singapore government promotes harmony, religion remains a sensitive topic. As an issue, it is never discussed in schools, so meeting other young people of faith and dialogue freely through a fun activity like this is refreshing.

My interreligious journey began as a teenager when I met the Focolare Movement, a Catholic movement deeply involved in dialogue among religions. Because of this, I had the chance to meet other young Focolare members who were non-Catholics, such as Buddhists. This foundation helped prepare me as I got more involved in interreligious dialogue.

In 2005, the Focolare movement sent me to Ambon for a summit of young religious leaders organized by Religions for Peace (RfP), the largest interreligious organization in the world based out of New York. There it opened my mind and horizon to know that interreligious dialogue can be a matter of life and death in many countries. For example, in Ambon, it was the site of religious conflict. Still, upon closer examination, it was clear that bad actors had used religion to incite violence in Christian and Muslim communities. By stirring mistrust and planting provocateurs, villages were burned, and lives were lost. Hearing their experiences was heart-wrenching and inspiring to learn how these communities have rebuilt trust to build lasting peace. I knew then that evil is by design, so to counter it, dialogue for peace and understanding has to be by design.

While at this youth conference, I met many other inspiring youth activists in interreligious dialogue, people like Rev. A. Elga Joan Sarapung, who is the Director of the Institute for Interfaith Dialogue in Indonesia Institut DIAN/Interfidei (INTERFIDEI) and coordinator of Indonesia Interfaith Network. She works tirelessly to unite youths of different faiths for common ground and understanding. As the conference went on, I became more informed of the greater work of Religions for Peace International and was attracted to it. So when Deputy Secretary General of RfP Rev. Kyoichi Sugino asked me to be more involved, I agreed. Rev. Kyoichi Sugino, affectionately known as Sugino, would eventually become my mentor and change my life in various ways.

Being in Religions for Peace then took me on an unexpected adventure. My professional work was in change and strategy, so my skills became helpful in a large global movement such as Religions for Peace. Very soon, Sugino asked me to work towards reconciling the official two youth groups of Religions for Peace based in Asia, both linked to Religions for Peace. This situation existed as they were created in different periods of the movement, one a legacy issue, the latter is more inclusive and open to new blood.

As part of this effort, in 2006, I was tasked to organize an Asian youth meeting to unite both sides in Singapore as an interfaith youth movement. I have never organized such a regional meeting, and what is even more challenging is that it is a religious one! At that time, Singapore had interfaith forums for youth in Singapore but not at a regional level as it could be risky. Such an event is considered dangerous as the government feared that the youths here could be influenced by certain extremist thinking when it is an event of a religious nature. The fear is not unfounded as extremist thinking rose sharply after 9/11. Terrorist groups did manage to infiltrate Singapore, nearly working to influence some people to attempt terrorism in Singapore. So, knowing what I knew, it was hard to find a way forward.

Fortunately, in Singapore, there is the Inter-Religious Organisation, Singapore (IRO) , which is on record as the world’s oldest interreligious organization. Founded post- World War II in 1949, the organization started with a bold idea to creatively create a shared space for peace and understanding led by religious leaders. Since its founding until today, it has lived by this invocation, which is read at every meeting:

O Lord, increase in us understanding and knowledge and set us free from the bondage of greed, hatred and ignorance, so that we may awake, arise and advance until the goal is reached, giving our bodies to work and our minds to the Lord .

May we work vigorously keeping within spiritual discipline to bring peace in our hearts . peace in our families, peace in our cities, peace in our planetary home, the world .

May we learn to master ourselves, sublimate our combative energies into creative channels, and freely offer ourselves in the service of our fellowmen, and our Lord .

Help us, 0 Lord, to ever strive to keep on these lines to promote peace on earth and goodwill among men .

By Thy grace, may we all prosper .

So naturally, I went to IRO to ask for help. Mr. Harban Singh, a council member of IRO who was also involved in RFP, then introduced me to a wonderful Zoroastrian leader in the IRO known affectionately as Mr. Russi. A wise and yet pragmatic man, Mr Russi warmly welcomes me. I explained what I was tasked to do and how new this idea was. He looked me in the eye and asked: “Are you prepared to go through with this all the way as it will be complicated? But the key is, it can be done! “

I did not know what I said yes to, but I said yes.

After that fateful meeting, over six months, Mr Russi patiently imparted wisdom and experiences on how to navigate a cacophony of issues, how to present to religious leaders, how to address government concerns, and where to involve the youth of Singapore for the event. He introduced me to anyone who mattered in government and religion.

In the end, in 2007, more than 120 youth religious leaders came from 30 Asian countries. It was the first time such an event happened in Singapore and youths involved in interreligious dialogue here had a chance to interact with their counterparts overseas. This event also sealed the unity of the two Asian youth groups in Religions for Peace. An election was held during the same conference, and I was humbled to be elected the Moderator for the newly unified Religions for Peace Asia Youth Network, the first Singaporean youth to have such a regional role in the interreligious world.

My experience thus opened the way for me to connect with many different leaders and youths serving in interreligious dialogue. It resulted in numerous other activities together with young people, such as organizing Arms Down, a global campaign to ask governments to convert 10% of their current military spending for poverty alleviation to meet Millennium Development Goals.

These deep personal relationships became useful when the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue wanted to organise a Christian-Taoist Colloquium in Singapore in 2018. This request came through to the Archdiocesan Catholic Council for Interreligious Dialogue where I serve as a Council Member. The council members at that time felt it could be challenging but my experience with the earlier confer- ence made this one seem more effortless. So I took up this task with the secretariat.

But this time, with a lot more experience, I focused on bringing together a group of volunteers to build a spirit of fraternity; together with the help of Focolare members, it became more important to have an encounter of family rather than just a serious conference. This was meant to be a regional meeting, so there were Taoists and Catholic experts coming from Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, and so on.

Over three days, 100 participants reflected on the theme of the colloquium, which was Christian and Taoist Ethics in Dialogue, by sharing concepts and per- sonal experiences from both religious communities. It was an experience that enriched the minds and souls. Archbishop and now Cardinal Ayuso said something beautiful towards the end of this colloquium, “it is the spirit of being family that best provides the conditions for dialogue.” I wholeheartedly agree, and in a time of division where it is easier to tweet hatred and preach division, we need a counter-generation for peace, to know how to be servants and actors for dialogue. In my own experience since 2005, it is critical that we intentionally create conditions for being a human family, always to favour dialogue for peace and the common good. Without this, humanity cannot prosper. Also, we must be realistic that evil is far more intentional than the people for good. So, truly, for a sustainable future, we need to be creative to shape movements and platforms for dialogue and understanding.

Bonus material: Genfest!

This week there is the international youth festival for changemaking, known as the Genfest taking place in Brazil: https://genfest.org/en/home-en/ . This event changed my life in 1995, and in 2018, I gave a talk to the youth.

See the 2018 talk here again: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrXYpyZgc0s