Francis Younghusband: Founder of the World Congress of Faiths
2004; Duquesne University Press; Volume: 41; Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2162-3937
Autores Tópico(s)Religious Tourism and Spaces
ResumoSeventy years ago, on July 3, 1936, the World Congress of Faiths convened at University College, London. It was a highly unusual and controversial event. Not a single bishop of the Church of England dared then to be seen in the company of members of other religions. They were in the business of conversion not conversation. For many years, the World Congress of Faiths was a solitary voice calling for a fellowship of faiths. Today, cohesion and dialogue are the watchword. International interfaith conferences are common, and the number of local interfaith groups in Britain has doubled since the year 2000. Yet, if this new mood is to be strong enough to withstand the testing of terrorism, it needs to be deeply rooted in the Spirit. It was a spiritual or mystical experience that motivated Francis Younghusband to found the World Congress of Faiths, and it is this dimension that the W.C.F. brings to the contemporary interfaith scene. Younghusband' s Life Francis Younghusband, perhaps appropriately, was born in India, on May 31, 1863, but his mother soon returned to Bath in England with her baby. When Francis was four and a half, she left him in the care of two unmarried sisters who imposed a strict Christian discipline on him. In 1873 he traveled to India with his parents, returning in 1876 for school at Clifton College in Bristol. In 1881 he entered Sandhurst to train as an officer in the British army and in the following year set sail for service in India. The highlights of his military career were his journeys of exploration to Manchuria and across the Gobi Desert. Even then, he was already interested in religion and was reading widely. Younghusband came to public notice when he led a military mission to Tibet in 1903. There is still controversy about this venture, but, for our purpose, its significance is that, just before he left Lhasa, Younghusband had a decisive spiritual experience. In December, 1909, he sailed back to Britain from India and was not to return there for nearly thirty years. He dabbled in politics and in journalism and was a member of several London societies, including the Royal Geographical Society, as president of which he supported Mallory's attempt to climb Mt. Everest. Continuing his interest in religion, he played a big part at the 1924 Religions of Empire Conference in London--the first major interfaith gathering to be held in Britain. He was also a founding member of the Society for Promoting the Study of Religions, which resulted from that conference. It was, however, indirectly a link with the World's Parliament of Religions that prompted Younghusband to found the World Congress of Faiths in 1936. As the 1893 World's Parliament of Religions drew to a close in Chicago, there was talk about another Parliament, perhaps in 1900 in India. Nothing came of this, but in 1933 another, almost forgotten, gathering was held in Chicago in direct imitation of the 1893 Parliament. Younghusband went to Chicago for the 1933 Parliament. This was arranged by the Fellowship of Faiths, which was itself the result of a merger of the Union of East and West--founded by Das Gupta, who was a follower of Rabindranath Tagore--and of the League of Neighbors, which was started in 1918 by Charles Weller, a social worker. Weller and Das Gupta both looked back to the 1893 Parliament for inspiration. It seems that Younghusband was encouraged by the World Fellowship of Faiths to arrange an international congress in London, which he did in 1936. This maintained the objectives of the World Fellowship of Faiths, but Younghusband, who liked to be his own boss, soon made clear the independence of the World Congress of Faiths. Prior to the 1936 Congress, Younghusband did not dwell on his mystical experience. (1) Instead, he talked about his travels in Asia, which had brought him into close contact with Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, and Confucians. I had deep converse with them on their religions, he said in a broadcast. …
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