As in previous issues, the ISKCON Communications Journal for June 1999 contains a number of most interesting articles which show how the movement is tackling in an open and determined way the challenges which have to be faced in ISKCON's future development both internally and in its external relationships. In view of my involvement in interfaith work, I was particularly interested in the article by Saunaka Rsi Dasa on 'ISKCON in Relation to People of Faith in God', which sets out the Society's first official statement on its relationship with those of other faiths.

I am not qualified to comment on the theological exposition that it offers as the basis for the guidelines it puts forward but I found this part of the document both helpful and illuminating. It will, I am sure, help to encourage others to have confidence in their dialogue with the movement.

It is welcome that the prologue to the document refers to the need to be aware of the different strands within a religious tradition as ancient and as wide as Hinduism. These ob-servations apply not only to the Hindu tradition but to other major world faiths as well. We always need to bear in mind that in dialogue we are meeting people — and people come from a particular part of their tradition and speak out of their personal experience of it. We do not dialogue with conceptual categories or concepts — even if we often spend our time together discussing them!

People may meet in dialogue as 'representatives' of a tradition. They may be authorised to speak on behalf of their communities, but more often the hope will be that they can articulate the positions which 'most' members of their community would take. It is always important, for the benefit of their dialogue partners, for individuals to make it clear when they are expressing personal views which are not in accord with the majority view within their community.

The ISKCON statement rightly recognises that if we are to build a better society together then there is a need to build wide 'coalitions' of people of moral purpose and integrity who hold key values in common, even if they look to different sources for these. It is very encouraging that the statement encourages ISKCON members to think in these broad-ranging terms. The distinction the document draws between seeking 'conversion' and 'spiritual development', in encounters with those who do not follow the same path, is a valuable one. Again, it is a distinction that can usefully be considered by those in other religious traditions. The notion of mutual challenge and the need to listen to one another in the hope of mutual enrichment is central to the document.

I was delighted to find in the text a number of echoes of the Inter Faith Network's own document on 'Building Good Relations on People of Different Faiths and Beliefs'. I hope that other religious communities and groups will produce their own statements of this kind. It would be encouraging if these confirmed, as I believe that they would, that there is much common ground between us on what characterises appropriate and fruitful encounters between people of different faiths.