International Conference on Cross-Cultural Religious Literacy Jakarta, 10-11 July 2024

Formal Greetings by Brett Scharffs, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, Brigham Young University Law School

Your Excellency Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi of the Republic of Indonesia,

Distinguished participants,

I would like to congratulate the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia for convening this important international conference. Special thanks to Her Excellency Foreign Minister Marsudi, who in a few minutes will offer the opening Keynote address. Your support and presence highlights the importance of this gathering and the importance of multifaith collaborations in an inclusive society.

I also congratulate Matius Ho, Executive Director of the Leimena Institute, and his formidable team, for their important role in our gathering together.

And thanks to the Ministry of Law and Human Rights of the Republic of Indonesia for their support.

Thanks also to the other supporting partner, the Templeton Religion Trust.

Thanks also to the speakers who have gathered from near and far, and for everyone who has come to listen and participate.

I’d like to reflect briefly on the components of the rather lengthy title for our gathering, because I think each is actually very important, and each has been chosen carefully.

First, we gather to discuss “cross-cultural religious literacy,” which is not just a slogan, but a comprehensive and tested mechanism for promoting greater understanding and appreciation for our faith traditions, both in their shared aspirations, and in their particularity.

CCRL has become an important Indonesian contribution to the fields of interfaith dialogue and cooperation. Indeed, it has become one of the most admired and (I hope) imitated models of building and sustaining inclusive societies in the world today.

Second, today’s gathering is an “international conference,” not just because the participant list is global in nature, but because we believe the topic and approaches are genuinely international in nature. Our hope is that the influence of this conference will reach beyond national borders.

Third, the conference title speaks of “multi-faith collaborations,” which is distinct from interfaith dialogue, in that it is not a search just for common ground, but a way of seeing each each other as human beings endowed with dignity and worth, which becomes a basis not just for talking with each other, but for working together on projects aimed to promote the common good. [Our Center will be co-sponsoring a conference at Oxford University later this month on interfaith collaborations that will feature Indonesia’s cross-cultural religious literacy programs.]

Fourth and finally, we speak of “inclusive societies,” because we are seeking ways of finding ways not just to live together peacefully, but for each of us to be fully-participating members of the societies in which we live.

I’m also grateful that we will focus on human dignity as the common ground for collaborative multifaith societies.

Again, on behalf of the foreign participants, Thank you to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, and all the supporting partners — and welcome to the 2024 International Conference on Cross-Cultural Religious Literacy.