International Association for Religious Freedom

Richard Boeke, First President of the US Chapter of the IARF

Some talk of the IARF makes it very serious and dull. As you think about coming to Vancouver in late July 1998, think fun!

Think of the wonderful tribal museum at the north edge of the Campus where we will be staying, great RAVEN illuminated as a shining KAMI. Think of the beautiful Japanese Garden on the West of the Campus, built as a gift of peace and a place of peace. Think of the wonderful beaches down the cliff to the west of the campus, and the delight of plunging into icy water on a hot summer day. Think of it as MISOGI (Japanese "purification by water").

Think of chatting with new friends from around the world as you walk to sessions across the campus. Think of the new people and visions you may discover. The beauty of singing "Spirit of Life" in worship. At IARF Palo Alto, many discovered that song and took it home translating it into at least three languages.

Think of the joy of after hour conversations. Think of the warm welcome of our Canadian Hosts, led by friends Rev. Harold Rosen, Ellen Campbell, and Philip Hewett.

The optimist and the pessimist look at the same world. But the optimist has more fun. On BBC radio, a story of Sir Thomas Beecham, the conductor, was told. He was rehearsing Handel's "Messiah" in Australia. The women were singing, "For unto us a child is born." Beecham stopped the rehearsal. He said, "Ladies, please think of the joy of conception, not the pain of childbirth." Then the men's chorus came in, "Wonderful!"

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "We shall either learn to live together as brothers, or perish together as fools." The IARF is dedicated to the proposition that human beings around the world can network together as friends. In this brief article, I will tell you some of my memories of "networking."

I was a Southern Baptist Chaplain in the US Air Force. My last year in the Air Force, I read Albert Schweitzer, and became convinced of the rightness of his teaching of "reverence for life." As I looked at our bombers and our atomic weapons, I realized that this MADNESS must end. I left the Air Force at the end of 1958 and became a Unitarian Universalist minister.

When I was called to the Unitarian Church in Flushing, New York, two college students from Kenya lived with me. Partly because of this Kenya connection, I made a trip around the world in the summer of 1962. A month in Kenya and Uganda(including an interview with Jomo Kenyatta). A visit to our 200 year old Unitarian Church in Madras.

Then a week in the Philippines where I was one of first American UUs to meet Rev. Quimada, the founder of the UU Church of the Philippines. He brought with him his translations of the American UU Hymnbook. I realized that anyone who would translate an entire hymnbook was serious. Dr. Dana Greeley helped raise money for Rev. Quimada to make mimeo copies of the hymnbook for his congregations. The work of Rev. Quimada continues to receive support from the IARF. His daughter, Rebecca, has studied at Meadville Theological Seminary and will be ordained in the Philippines in April 1999. Less than a year after Rev. Quimada attended the 1987 IARF Congress, he was murdered by paramilitary and his home and papers were burned.

My round the world trip continued in Japan, where I was greeted by Dr. Imaoka, Unitarian Minister and High School Principal. After I climbed Mt Fuji and made a pilgrimage to the Atomic City of Hiroshima, Dr. Imaoka hosted me at a dinner with many Japanese religious leaders. This was part of Dr. Imoaka's leadership in using his Japan Free Religious Association to bring Rissho Kosei kai, Tsubaki Grand Shrine, Itto-en, Konkoyo, and other non-dogmatic religious groups into the IARF. His efforts met success as Rissho Kosei kai was welcomed into the IARF in 1969, and Tsubaki Grand Shrine joined a few years later. Dr. Imaoka was very generous.

I will never forget joining Winifred Norman in presenting an IARF award to Dr. Imoaka, which was accepted by his son. The son said, "My father was a very bad father. He gave away everything. During the war, my mother had to hide food so we would not not starve." The son went on to praise his father. But his opening words stuck in my mind when Dr. Imoaka died at the age of 106. I stood in line in the rain with over a thousand as we paid our respects at his home. I thought of a poem of his friend, the Japanese Christian Kagawa:

Penniless,
for a while
I can live.
But it breaks
my heart
To know
I cannot give.

In the summer of 1964, "The Grote Beer" (the Great Bear) sailed with over 1,000 students from New York to Amsterdam. I was Protestant Chaplain, holding discussions and song fests every day. Sea Sick. You bet! I would go up to the front of the "forcastle" and face into the wind, a bit like the couple in the movie "Titanic." After a day or two, I got my "sea legs." With beer 10 cents a bottle, I think the ship left a solid trail on the ocean floor. We landed in Rotterham to a brass band and a welcome speech by a Dutch Prince.

I was soon on a train to Switzerland, and what was the "crown jewel" of IARF centers, Albert Schweitzer College in Churwalden. High in the Alps, with 25 to 30 students for one year courses. In winter they could ski right from the front door to a ski lift. Some of the Americans brought in marijuana, and the college was a bit in trouble with the Swiss. But overall the college was good for the liberal Swiss Protestants and dialogue for students between countries. How wonderful it would be if we still had Schweitzer College as a center for young adult dialogue and training lay ministers.

But only two or three years later, American UUs led in trying to make things better. Another location was picked near Geneva, and a Director imported who liked to live well. I visited once, to find no students. It was a beautiful spot with a pear orchard. A cheese warehouse was right across the road. Lovely afternoons, eating pears and cheese with a little Asti wine. The college went broke. But Churwalden was a simple basic rooming house with dining room and classrooms. With only modest continuing support, it could still be going.

In mid-July Dr. Max Gaebler (minister of the UU Church designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Madison, Wisconsin) and I left Schweitzer College to fly to Prague. Pilsner Beer and good wurst on Czech airlines. At Prague, we met 30 members of our tour group led by Don and Vilma Harrington. In our group where Rev. Jack Daniels and his wife Thelma. Also there was the grandson of John Haynes Holmes. We celebrated in the Unitarian Church on Karlova Street, warmly welcomed by Rev. Dusan Kafka and Rev. Bohdana Hasplova, the daughter of Norbet Capek (founding minister of the Czech Unitarians, who was taken from Concentration Camp Dachau to death in a gas chamber in 1942).

Then from Prague by bus to be welcomed by the Unitarians of Hungary and Romania. When we arrived in Cluj, Romania in the middle of the night, they had been waiting with dinner for us for six hours. At the top of the stairs, Bishop Kiss Elek greeted each of us with a huge bear hug. Sitting next to me at the dinner table was the Bishop's grandson, Tibor Szasz, who had just won the Romanian Young Pianist Competition. With plum brandy we encouraged Tibor to play. He gave us the first movement of Beethoven's Waldstein Sonata. From Cluj we went from village to village, our bus covered with flowers. We were welcomed as some of the first Unitarians to visit since World War II. Now, 34 years later, 200 North American UU Churches are linked to 130 churches in Easter Europe in the Partner Church program.

In early August, I was back in Holland for the 1964 IARF Congress in den Hague. The Congress opened with a gracious reception hosted by the Mayor of the Hague. And there a friend and I both saw a lovely young Dutch woman standing with Dr. and Mrs. Jacob Trapp. We both were properly introduced by the Trapps. We both asked her out. Less than a year later, Johanna and I were married in the Unitarian Church in Summit, New Jersey, with Dr. Trapp performing the wedding. As Dr. Trapp wrote in one of his hymns: "Wonders still the world shall witness,..."

1965 was a critical year in the Civil Rights Struggle in America. UU Minister James Reeb was murdered in Selma, Alabama, and hundreds of UU ministers from all over North America marched with Martin Luther King, Dana Greeley, and Homer Jack through the police lines in Selma. We became a transformed denomination. It opened us up for the next steps in world involvement: opposing the U.S. Military Presence in Vietnam.

We hoped that the IARF could meet in Romania in 1968, to celebrate the 400th Anniversary of the founding of Unitarianism. For that reason, the next IARF Congress was held in London in 1966, with most of the meetings at the Quaker Center near Euston Station. Then we continued to hammer out the major changes that would transform the IARF. At that time, the full name was the International Association for Liberal Christianity and Religious Freedom. I got up and spoke in favor of a change. I asked, would we join "The International Association for Liberal Moslems and Religious Freedom?" Sitting to me was the former Treasurer of the United States, Percival Brundage. He gave me his hand in support. The necessary amendments passed. Some of us discussed names such as Unitas," "The International Association for Liberal Religion," (The Canadians objected because of the Liberal Political Party in Canada), and the International Association for Free Religion.

When the name was changed, included in the proposal were four Commissions, one of which dealt with our links to the Christian World, another deal with Human Rights, and Commission Three was the Dialogue with World Religions, which would involve me in the years to come. We learned that the Communists would not allow the IARF to meet in Romania in 1968. A small celebration was held in Romania. I did not go to the celebration in Romania that year. I served as summer minister in Leicester, England, and flew back to the USA in time to serve as a Peace Delegate to the National Democratic Convention in Chicago. Still following the vision that led me out of the Air Force. At Chicago I helped organize a candlelight procession for peace for 400 delegates. Playwright Arthur Miller lit his candle from mine. Our candidate did not win the nomination. But in four years, the Viet Nam War came to an end.

The next IARF Congress was held jointly in Boston with the UUA General Assembly in 1969. This was probably the most dramatic General Assembly ever held as hundreds of UUA delegates walked out to insist on the funding of one million dollars to the Black Affairs Council. At the same time hundreds of IARF delegates were arriving. President Niwano led the five million members of Rissho Kosei-kai into IARF Membership. Dana Greeley as IARF President led us into the next decade. Rev. Diether Gehrman was hired as the first full time General Secretary of the IARF. He started work in the old office in the Hague, but soon moved the IARF Offices to Frankfurt, Germany, where they remained until the move to Oxford ten years ago.

The friendship of Niwano and Greeley took another step as they jointly founded the World Congress for Religion and Peace (WCRP), an organization that included leaders from more traditional religions. Homer Jack as General Secretary of the WCRP made many contributions to the peace dialogue.

But even as UUs reached out to the world in different ways there was a drop in U.S. UU membership and financial support. Budget cuts included the end of the Department of Overseas and Interfaith Religions. To fill the gap at the next UUA General Assembly 40 of us gathered to form what was then the North American Chapter of the IARF. Later, the Canadians pulled out, and we became the U.S. Chapter. I was elected first President and served for the next three years from my new church in St. Petersburg, Florida. Our newsletter was INTERDEPENDENCE, a forerunner of the current popularity of the word.

By the 1975 Congress in Montreal Canada, I was minister of the First Unitarian Church of Berkeley, California, where I remained for 21 years. Early in my ministry in Berkeley, I held several discussions with Chief Priest Yukitaka Yamamoto of Tsubaki Grand Shrine, Japan. Rev. Yamamoto was hoping to find a location to establish a North American Branch of Tsubaki Shrine. This later resulted in the establishment of Tsubaki America in Stockton, California. On one visit Rev. Yamamoto asked about joining the IARF. He gave me the money for membership. I had the honor of sending in the IARF membership application of Tsubaki Shrine, which was gladly accepted.

With the 1978 IARF Congress in Oxford, I became chair of IARF Commission Three on the Dialogue of World Religions. The 1981 Congress in Holland on the "Tide of Religion" was a most intellectually satisfying event. I remember discussing our theme with Cambridge Theologian Don Cupitt. In 1984, he did a now famous series on BBC Television called "The Sea of Faith." This launched the "Sea of Faith Movement" in England, which new has 1,000s of members and a large conference each summer. Perhaps "The Tide of Religion" inspired "The Sea of Faith?" That summer I had exchanged pulpits with Frank Walker. Frank and his family went to Berkeley, and I went to Cambridge, England. It was an easy trip from Cambridge to Holland for the IARF Congress. An added joy was that twenty members of our Berkeley Unitarian Choir came to sing at the IARF Congress.

For many of us the 1984 Japan Congress was the high point of the IARF. Again the Berkeley Choir came, now 40 strong, and its members were thrilled to sing in the great Fumon Hall of Rissho Kosei-kai, and making friendships with the Kosei Choir, and with the choir from Sepulveda, California. The Festival night we danced round and round the drummers.

Rissho Kosei-kai local groups in many parts of Japan were charming hosts. The guide on our bus was Mr. Ono, who now is director of the Niwano Peace Foundation. We were awed by Hiroshima, fed royally at Konkoyo Church in Osaka, and at Tsubaki. But at Tusbaki, the high point for most of us was not food but ritual, climaxed by our Misogi under the waterfall. We returned from Japan with the knowledge that the UUA would host the next IARF Congress.

We were filled with humility. What could we do to return such gracious hospitality?

In between Congresses, I had been helping to host IARF Conferences in North America. In 1967, I chaired the IARF Conference at Columbia University, which featured Philip Rieff and Science Fiction Author Frederick Pohl (a Unitarian). In 1971, we asked Dana Greeley and the Unitarian Parish in Concord, Massachusetts, to host an IARF Conference which featured Huston Smith, author of "The World's Religions." Doris Hunter and Orlanda Brugnola hosted an IARF Conference at Colgate Rochester Seminary prior to the UUA General Assembly at Cornell University.

Thus, I had some experience as I went with Phyllis McKeeman to Chicago to set up arrangements for the 1987 IARF Congress. In the discussion, UUA President William Schulz agreed the UUA would fund a half time staff member for two years. I became co-chair of the local committee with Rev. Jay Atkinson. We quickly surveyed the San Francisco area and picked Stanford University as site for the 1987 Congress. Rev. Ann Heller was hired as coordinator. With her help we got our act together. 600 registered for the Congress. High points were the circle groups organized by Rev. Frank Robinson, the large Celebrations in the Stanford Chapel led by Rev. Mark Belletini, the Hiroshima Candlelight Service at the Stanford Fountain led by Rev. Jun Yamamoto, and the worship in the auditorium at which we sang "Spirit of Life" at each service. Honored guests included two time Nobel Prize winner and IARF Patron, Dr. Linus Pauling. Pre and Post Congress Tours added to the richness of the experience for many. I'll never forget over 100 guests from Japan and Germany doing Misogi in Lake Tahoe. Then taking everyone shopping in Reno, Nevada.

Aiding in preparing the Congress were Rissho Kosei-kai members who had recently moved into their new church in Pacifica, California, and Marge Flaherty who had spend a year in Japan with her family as the last UUA Envoy. At their home in Stockton, Marge and John hosted dozens of students from IARF member groups in Japan. Tsubaki America had found difficulties with a site in Oakland, California, which was sold (several years later the Oakland site was burned in the Oakland fire which destroyed 1,000 homes). Tsubaki purchased a site in Stockton where Jun Yamamoto, Hitoshi Iwasaki, and a series of Tsubaki priests serve for a time and then return to Japan.

To help the world understand Shinto, Tsubaki America and four of its board members have published books on Shinto. Rev. Yukitaka Yamamoto's book, KAMI NO MICHI, has helped many of us understand the Japanese experience of War and desire for Peace (other Tsubaki authors are Delmer Brown, Stuart Picken, and George M. Williams). In recognition of Rev. Yamamoto's dedication, Starr King School for the Ministry awarded him an Honorary Doctorate. In return, Dr. Yamamoto set up a scholarship at Starr King which every other year brings a student from Starr King to Japan to experience Tsubaki for two or three months.

In 1990, over 30 members of the Berkeley Choir came to sing at IARF Hamburg. It was an exciting year in Germany. We stopped in Berlin and saw the Wall that had come down only a few months before. We then traveled by bus to worship with the Unitarians of Prague. Then, thanks to friends of Dr. Joseph Fabry, we gave a concert in the Grand Ballroom of Town Hall of Vienna. Then on Transylvania, where we sang in the great Unitarian Church of Cluj, and I had the honor to preach with Janos Erdo translating for me. Our visits to partner churches in the Homorod Valley brought the pilgrimage to an emotional close (I am co-leading another pilgrimage to Transylvania from Budapest May 10-18, 1999).

In 1992, I was asked by the IARF to host an interfaith gathering. With the help of a grant from the Dana M. Greeley Foundation, the 1992 Pacific Parliament of Religions took place at Pacific School of Religion. Over 500 people attended the opening talk by Matthew Fox at the First Congregational Church. The event brought together Marcus Braybrooke of the World Congress of Faiths, Robert Traer General Secretary of the IARF, and the General Secretary of the 1993 World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.

In 1993 the IARF joined with the World Congress of Faiths in a joint Congress in Bangalore, India, partly in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the 1893 World Parliament of Religions. After Bangalore, many of us were part of a celebration at Ise, Japan, organized by Tsubaki Grand Shrine. Robert Traer joined several thousand at the 1993 Chicago World Parliament of Religions (WPR - the next WPR will be in Cape Town, S.A., starting late November 1999).

In 1996 at IARF Korea, in recognition of his dedication & support, Dr. Yamamoto was elected President of the IARF. As he comes to the end of his term at IARF Vancouver in August 1999, we honor a man who survived the jungles of New Guinea to dedicate his life in a religious quest for understanding and peace. May his tribe increase.