LONDON - As the head of the world's largest economic development agency, James Wolfensohn is an extraordinarily busy man. Since becoming president of the World Bank some two and a half years ago, he has visited more than 60 countries, meeting with heads of state and government, top national banking officials and representatives from leading non-governmental organizations.

So it is in all respects exceptional that Mr. Wolfensohn spent nearly two days meeting with spiritual leaders from nine major world religions in February, exploring topics that are seemingly unrelated to international finance - such as how spiritual and material development are interrelated and how the Bank and the religions might forge a new relationship to help tackle the problems of global poverty.

"For a man like Wolfensohn, nothing is as important as his time," said Dr. Thomas Lachs, a former director of the Bank of Austria, who was at the meeting as a representative of the Reform Jewish community. "So I found it quite remarkable that he took two days for this conference, and consider it a sign of the importance he attaches to such things."

By all accounts, too, the meeting itself was quite extraordinary. Convened by Mr. Wolfensohn and the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, the event - known officially as the World Faiths and Development Dialogue - was held in London 18-19 February 1998 at the Archbishop's 800-year-old residence, Lambeth Palace. The gathering resulted in a series of ground-breaking ideas and initiatives that could significantly reshape the field of international economic development, say those who were involved.

"For the first time in contemporary economics, the role of religion in development was not just publicly acknowledged or even acclaimed, but brought into a partnership with one of the largest and, some would argue, most vociferously secular organizations in the world," said Martin Palmer, director of the International Consultancy on Religion, Education and Culture (ICOREC), which played a key role in organizing the Dialogue. "The repercussions of this are that the economic world will have to take religion seriously - and vice versa." In particular, said participants, the meeting gave high-level endorsement to the idea that true development cannot take place without the proper consideration of spirituality in the lives of individuals and communities.

As Mr. Wolfensohn himself said in a closing statement: "What is clear is that what has come out of this meeting is that there is a unity between us. A unity of the concern for physical livelihood but also spiritual and cultural continuity and I think it is that which certainly I have found remarkable at this meeting. There has been a total meeting of minds in terms of this linkage."

High-Level Representation
The representatives of the world's religions themselves came from perhaps the highest level yet for such an interfaith conference. Included were leaders from the Bahá'í Faith, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism, and Taoism. Among them, they represented the religious traditions followed by an estimated 3 billion people.

On the Bank's side, Mr. Wolfensohn himself was the main representative. A former investment banker, Mr. Wolfensohn has during his tenure sought to create new directions for the Bank, which has come under criticism in recent years for, among other things, its emphasis on funding large projects that some development specialists say are disconnected from the needs of local people.