The Interreligious Peace Sports Festival 2003

Creating an Environment of Peace through Sports

By John W. Gehring and Carol Pobanz

Coach Song Yung was responsible for guiding the Philippine National Volleyball teams to the finals in the inaugural Interreligious Peace Sports Festival (IPSF) in Cheonan, Korea on July 7-15. His teams were among the 1,000 athletes, coaches and staff from 40 nations that participated in a unique sports festival designed to promote peace through competitive sports, cultural sharing, service projects, education seminars and leadership training programs. In sharing about his team’s experience, coach Yung remarked, “Our teams were deeply moved by the unique and rich environment of warmth and friendship that permeated this highly competitive sporting event.”

IPSF International Director, John W. Gehring shared that in talking to many of the athletes after they had returned from the IPSF their was a general agreement that the athletes felt they had tested themselves in the international sporting arena and now they were discovering how much they had grown from the that experience. Another strong response from the participants was that, while they did strive for medals and personal bests, they definitely succeeded in making friends that cut across the traditional barriers of religion, race and nationality.

The idea of initiating an international sporting event to promote peace is not new yet the IPSF utilizes a new and potentially groundbreaking twist. In the IPSF, the love of sports is combined with a healthy respect for religion and culture and it is this combination of ingredients that offers the potential for healing old wounds and making new bridges in the process of peace.

The Interreligious Peace Sports Festival took shape as a result of the inspiration and support from Dr. Sun Myung Moon who in the opening ceremony shared his observation that sports contain the dynamic potential to be a powerful catalyst for peace. Getting behind the idea of sports being a potential tool for creating a culture of peace, the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace (IIFWP) threw its support and sponsorship behind the event.

The Sporting Events:

The sports presented in the IPSF included men’s and women’s events in basketball, track and field, badminton, table tennis and tennis and also men’s soccer. In addition, over two thousand runners accepted a public invitation to join the IPSF athletes in a 5 kilometer Peace Run. Although official games began on July 10 th, some of the preliminary rounds in basketball and soccer were held on July 9 th.

The individuals and teams in the IPSF were recruited largely from national teams, universities and sports clubs. In many nations, sports clubs are organized by religions and these clubs contributed several teams to the festival. Among the top competitors were athletes and teams that competed in a wide range of sporting events including the Caribbean Games, the Asian Games, the Olympics and other national and world level competitions.

Athletes were selected for the Sports Festival primarily as representatives of their respective religion and only secondarily of their nations. This unusual twist was in part designed to help teams go beyond national boundaries and also encourage stronger cooperation between co-religionists. Placing competing teams representing different religions on the same court was potentially a recipe for disaster, but the deeper motivation of the athletes proved to be their willingness to draw the best out of themselves and their competitors. Coach Song whose women’s team won the gold and men’s team captured the silver, amply described the situation of the matches in the following way: “It was surprising that the competitions were fierce, yet participants became friends afterward and showed each other great respect. From these events we could see that sports is truly a powerful catalyst for peace.”

The Beginnings:

The major task of hosting the participants and guiding the sporting events fell in large part on the local host of the Festival, Sun Moon University. The IPSF was a major part of the 9 th World Culture and Sports Festival that was taking place in Cheonan/Asan, Korea during this time.

The Festival as a whole was designed as a way to celebrate humanities spiritual strength, a strength that is in large part a product of its remarkable diversity. All those participating had exceptional opportunities to grow in their ability to relate to people from many diverse backgrounds as a result of firsthand experiences with people from all cultures and spiritual traditions.

Arrivals to the Festival began on July 7 th at South Korea’s Incheon International Airport where student members of the IPSF staff warmly greeted waves of participants. Coaches, officials and even family members accompanied the 16 to 23 year old athletes, who after receiving little welcome gifts were brought by bus to the modern Hannaradang Training Center where the travel-weary could settle into their rooms.

Soon individual athletes and teams were practicing in preparation for the scheduled games. Initial shyness gradually dissipated and our interreligious staff, coaches, and participants began the bonding process so unique to this event. Christians looked with interest at Sikh topknots; quiet eastern religionists observed the more verbose American Baptist, while tall Russians looked curiously at the “smaller peoples” of the world. The differences that were initially an easy excuse for separation had now become a cause for curious and meaningful interest.

The July 10 th opening ceremony, held concurrently with the World Culture and Sports Festival (WCSF) in front of an enthusiastic full house in the Yukwan-sun Gymnasium, marked the ‘official’ start of the IPSF. The ceremony was full of colorfully costumed international dancers, and featured a diverse pageantry of sight, sound and celebration.

Words of encouragement were given by the Festivals Founder, Dr. Sun Myung Moon and other opening addresses included those of former Costa Rica President, Rodrigo Carazo, the Governor of Cheonan, Dae Pyung Shim and WCSF Chairman, Dr. Chung Hwan Kwak. In attendance were several former heads of state, political leaders, international scholars, religious leaders, university students, athletes and representatives of over 100 nations.

The athletes entered the stadium and marched proudly and joyfully onto the court under the banner of the religion that they were representing. The ten religions that fielded teams were: Buddhism, Christianity, Chondokyo, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Shinto, Sikhism and Unificationism.

Although the sporting events were the central pillar of the festivities, each day had a full complement of programs that participants could invest themselves in. One of the special highlights of the IPSF experience was each evening’s cultural programs. Many of the national delegations had prepared performances before arriving that offered some expression of their culture including dance, music and fashion shows. Each performance was rich in variety and unique in its flavor. The performances, whether well rehearsed or spontaneous were full of energy and creativity. Often the audience responded to performances by joining in the dances and songs with young people from one culture soon teaching those from another culture to dance or to wear their native dress. These performances had everything to do with breaking down wall of separation between people and building bridges of friendship and understanding.

Educating for Peace:

Creating educational activities and experiences to help facilitate the purpose of the festival was a key goal of the festival program. Guiding these educational opportunities was an international team of professionals recruited from university lecturers, successful athletes, trainers, religionists, character education experts and peace workers. The week of programs focused on three central themes:

1.       Peace and Development: Taking Steps in developing the foundation for peace

2.       The World is Our Home: Building religious and cross-cultural understanding

3.       Character as Training for Life

One practical expression of the education theme on Peace and Development occurred with the athletes participating in a service program that was organized by Service for Peace, a charitable organization of international volunteers. The athletes who volunteered to join the daylong river-rafting program accompanying mentally challenged children strongly testified to its transforming experience.

Before leaving the “Land of the Morning Calm” sightseeing and shopping tours were organized historical information could be gathered and souvenirs and gifts could be bought.

Other aspects of the IPSF experience included sightseeing opportunities that gave each participant a chance to see parts of the Korean countryside and receive a sense of the nation’s rich culture and history

The international staff played a major role in creating an atmosphere of cooperation at the IPSF. Most of the international staff were alumni from the Religious Youth Service (RYS), a global interreligious service learning program with service projects in many countries. The staffs past experience with RYS in which they worked on numerous occasions with peace projects involving youth from various cultures and religions prepared them well for the challenges of the Interreligious Peace Sports Festival. The staff showed a special ability to pull diverse groups of people together and create an environment of friendly communication. This skill was very important for throughout the duration of the sports festival all participants and staff lived together in close quarters. This living arrangement gave participants opportunities to meet and share freely over meals and in many of the public areas.

Participants and staff representing ten major religious traditions were given time each morning to set up a devotional services for those sharing the same religion. These devotional periods provided people a rich opportunity to spend time with their co-religionists. The services were created to be guest friendly so that other participants could join them even if they were from other religions. Many utilized this unique opportunity to get a deeper understanding of some of the other ways people worship.

This open environment helped provide chances for people to meet with people they normally would never get a chance to know. The friendships that have developed as a result of this exchange are rich and numerous. The experience was one that everyone could look back on with great satisfaction and pride as a milestone in his or her life course.

The Interreligious Peace Sports Festival was guided by its Chairmen, Dr. Chun Hwang Kwak while it was being organized out of Sun Moon University under the supervision of the National President of the IPSF Dr. Kyung June Lee and the Secretary General Dr. Soo Min Kim. The worldwide recruiting of athletes and the organization of the cultural and education programs was done under the supervision Dr. Walsh, Secretary General of the Interreligious and International Federation for World peace who utilized the international foundation of the Religious Youth Service (RYS) and the IIFWP’s Ambassadors for Peace.

Rev. John W. Gehring guided the international staff of educators and trainers. Rev. Carol Pobanz directed the Hospitality team; Mr. Daniel Bessell coordinated the General Affairs team while Mr. Jim Feher served to coordinate the sporting events. Working closely with the hosting staff, teams of translators and a talented multi-religious international staff worked diligently to serve the needs of all the coaches and participants throughout the event.

This unique interreligious gathering seems to have piqued the interest of many.

We all look forward to next year’s bigger and more elaborate Festival to be held in South Korea from July 20 th to –27 th 2004.