Melbourne December 3rd -9th 2009, Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre
In December last year Melbourne hosted the Parliament of World Religions (PWR) marking one hundred and seventeen years of global interfaith dialogue. The beginning of modern interfaith dialogue is usually traced to the first meeting of the World Parliament of religions in1893 in Chicago. This event is widely regarded as the beginning of the international interfaith movement. Since 1993 PWR has meet every five years in different countries. (For a more detailed account of interfaith dialogue since 1893 see Braybrooke, M. (1992). Pilgrimage of hope: one hundred years of global interfaith dialogue. New York: Crossroad). PWR ‘brings together the world’s religious and spiritual communities, their leaders and their followers to a gathering where peace, diversity and sustainability are discussed and explored in the context of interreligious understanding and cooperation’. PWR is unique in that it facilitates bringing people of all faiths, cultures and walks of life together in the one place. PWR strives to give all people a voice by providing the opportunity to participate in a session of PWR so as to deepen understanding, foster respect among the religions and work together towards world peace through interfaith co-operation.
As the world’s largest interreligious gathering, the Parliament commits to:
- Convene religious and civil leaders and people of faith, spirit and goodwill from at least or more than 80 countries.
- Foster interreligious, civil and cross-cultural dialogue on important local, national, and global issues.
- Invite over 10,000 participants to work together for a just, peaceful, and harmonious society.
- Have global appeal, covering social concerns including understanding and respecting diversity, peace and Indigenous reconciliation.
- Engage worldwide religious, spiritual, secular, environmental, business and educational leaders to seek commitment and practical solutions through dialogue.
- Promote and encourage social cohesion within societies locally and across the world.
This commitment was reflected in the theme of the 2009 gathering: Make a world of difference: hearing each other, healing the earth and the many different sessions held within the six days of Parliament. The overarching theme was explored through seven major subthemes: Healing the earth with care and concern, Indigenous peoples, Overcoming poverty in an unequal world, Securing food and water for all people, Building peace in the pursuit of justice, Creating social cohesion in village and city, Sharing wisdom in the search for inner peace, in order to address the following three goals of Parliament:
· In seeking justice and sustainable living, we actively express our commitment to a better world
· In recognizing the humanity of the other, we create the conditions for community
· In deepening our spirituality, we experience personal transformation
The subthemes attracted presentations from almost every corner of the world making Parliament a rich and fulfilling experience. In a time of growing cultural and religious diversity and the concern for environment this was a timely theme as it challenged and encouraged people of all faiths to value the integral role and contribution faith makes to healing the world and reconciliation. All faiths were encouraged to continue developing dialogues with different disciplines such as economics, science, justice, environment and politics to name a few and to strengthen interfaith co-operation wherever possible. I believe the church has an integral role in healing the earth. If we take seriously our role as stewards and caretakers of the world - and that the world or creation is God's home then as the church we need to be active in how we care for it and all living creatures.
The Uniting Church led a session at PWR on Saturday December 5th. The session was titled “Neighbourhoods of difference: the Uniting Church in Australia and interfaith relations”. The DVD explores the Uniting Church’s perspective on relating with people of other faiths. “Neighbourhoods of difference” is about valuing diversity and living with difference”. Neighbourhoods give a sense of home, identity and belonging. When nurtured wisely they become places of hospitality and welcome. They can be places from which we gain the confidence to engage with the other and places to which we invite the other in. Neighbourhoods, both literal and metaphorical, can create an environment where dialogues and relationships among diverse people can take place. In this way, they can be places where hearing begins so healing can continue to happen.
The core message of “Neighbourhoods of difference” with regard to the Uniting Church is that “loving the neighbour who is different” is part of its identity and mission. This core ethos is integral to the work of the UCA and its different Agencies and it enables the Uniting Church to work in partnership with others across religious and cultural boundaries. The panel consisted of a representative of ROF (Sef Carroll) and representatives of the following Assembly Agencies; Multicultural and Cross Cultural Ministry (Tony Floyd), Uniting Justice (Elenie Poulos) and Uniting World (Kerry Enright). Each representative presented a perspective of how their area of work overlaps with interfaith issues and how their specific area of their work addresses the theme. The UCA session was chaired by Isabel Thomas Dobson, Moderator of the Victoria-Tasmania Synod.
In my view PWR was a worthwhile event. Of course there are still a number of issues, theological and otherwise, that remain unresolved in terms of how we relate to people of other faiths but these cannot be expected to be resolved at any one meeting of PWR. For Dirk Ficca, Executive Director of the council for PWR, trust among the religions is paramount before meaningful dialogue and co-operation can take place. Interfaith dialogue and co-operation is an ongoing process and it is a necessary commitment we cannot do without if we are sincere about our efforts to create and maintain a just, peaceful and sustainable world.
Rev Seforosa Carroll