Western students to attend United Nations conference

Five Western students and 11 professors will visit Seattle this weekend for the International Conference on Unity and Diversity in Religion and Culture, a conference Western is co-sponsoring with eight other universities in the region.

The event focuses on psychological and philosophical issues at the core of global conflict. Nine universities in the Pacific Northwest also are organizing the event, including Western and the University of Washington, with Antioch University Seattle being the official host.

UNESCO is a United Nations agency created to promote dialogue and international cooperation toward the goal of peace and respect for values and cultures. The Chair on Comparative Studies of Spiritual Traditions, Their Specific Cultures and Interreligious Dialogue was created specifically to promote research, study and collaboration between diverse cultures and religions, involving science, art and philosophy, said Skye Burn, an associate member of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Chair.

Burn, a graduate of Fairhaven College, is the event coordinator. Burn was responsible for bringing the nine universities together for the conference, and said it is the first time these universities have cooperated on something together. The conference, eighth in a series presented by the UNESCO Chair, also is the first to take place in the United States and is the first time in which Western has had the opportunity to participate. The previous seven were in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Burn said the aim of the conference is to develop and encourage communication across cultures and to use this interaction to study issues underlying global conflict.

"There is a deficit of wisdom and intelligence in the world today, not a deficit of information," Burn said.

Burn approached Fairhaven College professor Daniel Larner in the fall to recruit students and faculty to attend the conference.

Larner said he immediately was interested and presented the opportunity to a class he taught with an emphasis in world religion. Three of the five students attending the conference are from that class. While there was no real selection process to determine who could attend the event, Larner said it is formidable to commit to a three-day event at which participants must contribute work and pay some costs involved.

"The chance to talk about issues in a way we don't normally get to talk about in an extraordinary setting and with fascinating people from all over the world is amazing," Larner said.

He said his thesis paper for the event centers around visions of peace and harmony as reflected in ancient traditions. His research focuses on passages from the Old Testament about the prophet Micah and two books from Homer's "Odyssey."

Western junior Jeremiah Holt is one of the students attending the conference.

Holt said he heard about the conference at the beginning of fall quarter and submitted an abstract for a paper to be presented and discussed at the event. Holt, who is studying international relations and Middle East studies at Fairhaven, said he is looking forward to meeting and conversing with all kinds of people.

Holt said his paper researches the concepts of charity, revenge and equality as expressed in the Bible, the Torah and the Quran. In his abstract, Holt said he presents many questions for readers.

"I'm not sure of the answers to all these questions, but I just want to raise them," Holt said.

Western senior Kipp Trembley, a general studies major at Western, said he has a personal interest in the notion of unity and diversity in religious groups because he is a pagan practitioner.

"There is a certain fear involved when involved in a fringe movement," he said.

Trembley is a member of the Cedar Grove Druid Fellowship in Bellingham. He said Pagan Druidry is an earth-based faith and the fellowship focuses on services through eco-ministry, or environmental projects.

Trembley said he wrote his paper for the conference on a Druidic perspective of community. As a Druid facing judgment from many people, Trembley said he has a vested interest in communication. He said he is looking forward to discussing many aspects of religion and culture at the conference.

Also attending the conference is Western senior Alana Dittrich and Western senior Andrew Haynes, and junior Jeffrey Reynolds said he hopes he will be accepted to attend with a late registration.