On Monday night my wife and I had an Orthodox rabbi and scholar from Jerusalem as an overnight guest.  As Toronto-based Roman Catholics, we have had the privilege of gracious encounters with persons of other faiths.  And in our work and writings, my wife and I both have been active in inter-religious learning and dialogue. Still, the experience of having a rabbi eating with us, and sleeping in our guestroom study, involved a degree of familiarity that was at once a great honor and adventure.

The Rabbi and I had set up this meeting to continue a conversation that began in Amman, Jordan two years ago. Now face-to-face, we wanted to explore possibilities for extending the dialogue that is occurring between faiths in pockets around the world to include the business community. Very simply, the idea is to draw upon the vast wisdom from the world’s religious traditions as a resource for energizing thoughtful, ethical management. In the course of several hours we laid out a conceptual framework for testing this hypothesis, recognizing that there are many obstacles to such a conversation, but confident that the effort and risks would be worth it, given that so many of the social and environmental expectations for corporate performance now involve inherently moral considerations.

Only in town for one day, our guest was also in touch with other colleagues.  First he met a corporate CEO who is a Sikh for afternoon tea. And late that evening, a Muslim scholar who has had a much longer collaboration than I with the rabbi, came to visit. The rabbi was in prayer when our guest arrived, so it was left to we strangers to exchange introductions. Only a few minutes later the rabbi joined us, and I watched a in greeting they embraced and exchanged a prayer of blessing, the one to the other. We talked together briefly, but I then left my guests in our living room, were they spent several hours in deep exchange. At some point, the rabbi escorted his guest back out through our front door, locked-up our house, and went to rest in the room from which I’m now writing this blog.

I have several reasons for recounting the details of what was by standards of my normal business day an extraordinary one.

First, the Monday during which this visit and these activities occurred was the day immediately following the deadly night-time raid of six ships by commandos trying to prevent the vessels from breaking Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. Aware of the still-unfolding situation, with heavy hearts we monitored the tragedy, and sorrowfully imagined ramifications. What it means that the world’s agony intensified on a day of such amazing collegiality is not yet clear to me, but describing it felt necessary to provide an alternative story within the narrative arc of divisiveness that predominates in the media. Hatred abounds, and violence is always but a heartbeat from irrupting. But that is not the only story. All over the world, thousands of people from diverse backgrounds and beliefs are involved in projects, actions and movements based on dialogue and collaboration. That work did not get easier on Monday, but I would argue it got more essential.

Second, because many companies operate in multinational or multicultural contexts, managers have more of a vested interest in such dialogue than is normally assumed. Peace and stability are perquisites for investment, and these rely not only on the rule of law but also on civil structures for fair and mutual exchange. I wrote after 9/11 that company boards would be derelict in their fiduciary responsibility if operating in diverse communities without that diversity represented among directors. Whether companies have a role in peace-making is being hotly debated by academics, but it is already clear that a more radical diversity is prudent on boards, for the sake of assets that might be at risk, and for opportunities that may only be unlocked with cultural nuance and sensitivity .

We have a long way to go. Monday’s news was a reminder that much is at stake. Monday’s meetings proved what is also possible, and precious.

Tags: corporate diversity, corporate peace-keeping, interfaith dialogue, religious resources for business ethics.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 at 4:50 am and is filed under Dialogue. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.