Melbourne Parliament of Religions bridges the world
Friday, 11 Dec 2009
by Mark Brolly
The Parliament of the World's Religions ended on 9 December with a gesture of solidarity with another international gathering on the other side of the world, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
Adherents of many of the 220 religious and spiritual beliefs from more than 80 countries represented at the Parliament gathered on a new footbridge over the Yarra after the closing plenary session to send a message to delegates in the Danish capital: "Protect The Only Earth We Have."
It was a simple but striking end to the six-day Parliament at the new Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre at South Wharf. The theme of the Parliament, which first met in Chicago in 1893, was "Make a World of Difference: Hearing Each Other, Healing the Earth".
The Dalai Lama was the key attraction on the final day, appealing to religious and spiritual adherents to promote the importance of the inner person and compassion to help solve the world's problems. He said the world had made great material advances but a great moral crisis was damaging both people and the planet.
Archbishop Freier gave the Christian Blessing at the closing ceremony, from the Beatitudes, capping the contribution of local and international Anglicans to the five-yearly gathering, which was attended by more than 5000 people.
Dr Freier and Bishop John Harrower of Tasmania celebrated Sunday Eucharist on 6 December as part of the morning observances held on each day of the Parliament. The archbishop was also a panellist on the role of religion and spirituality in the public discourse and at a seminar with Melbourne youth.
The Revd Professor Gary Bouma chaired the board of management for the Melbourne Parliament, Archdeacon Philip Newman, whose responsibilities are for Christian unity and relations with the world's religions, was active in promoting the event, while local Anglicans such as the Vicar of Holy Trinity East Melbourne, Fr John Stewart, hosted pre-Parliament forums and was a volunteer guide during the event itself.
International Anglicans, such as the Revd Dr Marcus Braybrooke, President of the World Congress of Faiths and patron of the International Interfaith Centre in Oxford, and Bishop Geoffrey Davies, coordinator of the Southern African Faith Communities' Environmental Institute, were speakers, panellists and moderators.
The senior elder of the Wurundjeri people, Joy Murphy Wandin, played a prominent role in both the opening and closing plenary sessions, offering the Welcome to Country and presenting the Dalai Lama and other religious leaders with traditional gifts.
Local and overseas indigenous representatives were prominent participants throughout the Parliament, which included 662 programs, the screening of 37 films and 42 off-site events. There were 1500 presenters, performers and exhibitors, while other events included a communities night on 4 December, in which local adherents of many faiths hosted visitors at venues around Melbourne.
Chicago Muslim leader and president of a foundation that runs a daily Islamic radio station, Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, succeeded American Lutheran scholar the Revd Bill Lesher as chair of the Parliament's board of trustees.
Imam Mujahid, in a speech resembling that of an evangelical preacher, launched PeaceNext.org, a social network enabling interreligious dialogue in cyberspace between five-yearly meetings of the Parliament.
by Mark Brolly
The Parliament of the World's Religions ended on 9 December with a gesture of solidarity with another international gathering on the other side of the world, the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
Adherents of many of the 220 religious and spiritual beliefs from more than 80 countries represented at the Parliament gathered on a new footbridge over the Yarra after the closing plenary session to send a message to delegates in the Danish capital: "Protect The Only Earth We Have."
It was a simple but striking end to the six-day Parliament at the new Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre at South Wharf. The theme of the Parliament, which first met in Chicago in 1893, was "Make a World of Difference: Hearing Each Other, Healing the Earth".
The Dalai Lama was the key attraction on the final day, appealing to religious and spiritual adherents to promote the importance of the inner person and compassion to help solve the world's problems. He said the world had made great material advances but a great moral crisis was damaging both people and the planet.
Archbishop Freier gave the Christian Blessing at the closing ceremony, from the Beatitudes, capping the contribution of local and international Anglicans to the five-yearly gathering, which was attended by more than 5000 people.
Dr Freier and Bishop John Harrower of Tasmania celebrated Sunday Eucharist on 6 December as part of the morning observances held on each day of the Parliament. The archbishop was also a panellist on the role of religion and spirituality in the public discourse and at a seminar with Melbourne youth.
The Revd Professor Gary Bouma chaired the board of management for the Melbourne Parliament, Archdeacon Philip Newman, whose responsibilities are for Christian unity and relations with the world's religions, was active in promoting the event, while local Anglicans such as the Vicar of Holy Trinity East Melbourne, Fr John Stewart, hosted pre-Parliament forums and was a volunteer guide during the event itself.
International Anglicans, such as the Revd Dr Marcus Braybrooke, President of the World Congress of Faiths and patron of the International Interfaith Centre in Oxford, and Bishop Geoffrey Davies, coordinator of the Southern African Faith Communities' Environmental Institute, were speakers, panellists and moderators.
The senior elder of the Wurundjeri people, Joy Murphy Wandin, played a prominent role in both the opening and closing plenary sessions, offering the Welcome to Country and presenting the Dalai Lama and other religious leaders with traditional gifts.
Local and overseas indigenous representatives were prominent participants throughout the Parliament, which included 662 programs, the screening of 37 films and 42 off-site events. There were 1500 presenters, performers and exhibitors, while other events included a communities night on 4 December, in which local adherents of many faiths hosted visitors at venues around Melbourne.
Chicago Muslim leader and president of a foundation that runs a daily Islamic radio station, Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, succeeded American Lutheran scholar the Revd Bill Lesher as chair of the Parliament's board of trustees.
Imam Mujahid, in a speech resembling that of an evangelical preacher, launched PeaceNext.org, a social network enabling interreligious dialogue in cyberspace between five-yearly meetings of the Parliament.
Voices of faith at the Parliament of Religions
A couple of days ago I returned from Australia, where I attended the 2009 Parliament of World Religions. The event was held in Melbourne from December 3-10.
I spent those last couple of days trying to think how to describe the Parliament to those not there. I explained the experience to a few friends and a few folks from Patheos -- and each time it came out quite differently.
How could it not? We flew 15,000 miles to spend 7 days in a massive building with 5,000 people representing over 200 faiths. We saw a few of the 1,000 presentations and panel discussions, wandered the halls where the costumes of countless traditions and the languages of countless nations could be experienced in large, greedy gulps. And we heard the ideas and opinions of lots and lots of folks. That is pretty hard to describe.
Within the context of the overall Parliament, I had the chance to talk to a lot of people. A dozen of them I talked to on camera -- and I asked them the same 4 questions each:
- What does it mean to be a in today's world?- With the "shrinking" of the world through technology, how does that impact you and your tradition?- When you interact with others, from different traditions, what aspects of your tradition do they find it easiest to understand or accept -- and what aspects to they find it more difficult to understand or accept?- What do you hope comes out of gatherings like this one in Melbourne?
I asked that of some of the traditions we DON'T hear as much about -- even at Patheos so far. The Patheos team of regular contributors includes people that are Christian (Catholic, Mainline Protestant, Evangelical Protestant, and Mormon), Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, Atheist and "Non-Affiliated". So I specifically sought out other voices, and interviewed a Jain, a Soka Gakkai, a Scientologist, a Quaker, a Hindu, a Baha'i, a Sikh, a Gnostic, a Zoroastrian, a Wiccan, a Hare Krishna, and a Unitarian-Universalist.
Their video interviews are here.
To be fair, these aren't random adherents (although, at the Parliament, you always get people who have a pretty active role in their traditions) -- they are instead teachers or spokespeople for their tradition.
As you watch the videos, you start to notice some things. The voices and accents and garb and cultural heritage of the speakers varies wildly. The context of their tradition colors their answers.
But beyond all of that, the utter sameness of so much of what they are saying starts to sink in. That they are proud of their tradition. That they think at the core it is about a few fundamental human truths. That they believe their is a lot of good that their tradition can do in the world. That they are trying to do some real, practical good. And that you don't have to be a member of that tradition to join with them to help make it a better place.
Some of you will notice that and will be surprised, and some of you will notice that and not be surprised. But notice it, either way.
There are some huge problems out there in the world. And although it is clear that the solutions to these problems must involve the world's religious traditions, it isn't clear that many of the religious institutions will be able to get out of their own way in order to do so. I'll have a lot to say about some of those things in upcoming blogs.
By Leo Brunnick December 15, 2009; 3:30 AM ET
Source: http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/leo_brunnick/2009/12/voices_of_faith.html
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