God has got me off to a running start! – this is the only way I can describe the day.

The first day of the Parliament of World Religions (PWR) in Melbourne began after arrival from Tasmania to Melbourne airport with

• a Sikh taxi driver explaining the practices of Sikhism,
• generous hospitaility at St Paul’s Cathedral by the Archbishop’s warm hearted team and Joy accompanying me to buy a Metcard and map, followed by
• a tram ride to the conference and chatting with the Met bloke who it turned out was Greek Orthodox- warm-hearted but lapsed, although, “now I’m talking to you I should do something about it (church). Faith means a lot to me when things get tough.”, followed by
• a distressed young woman (on the same tram) “I do not want to intrude, but can you help me?” (the advantage of wearing a clerical collar 🙂 ) about what to do at work because a colleague was harrassing her (a Roman Catholic) and forcing ‘new age stuff’ on her and belittling her,
• meeting Colin an SSM brother who is also staying at Bishopscourt and we have fallen into easy stride together, and
• travelling on the tram at night a PWR volunteer who I fell into conversation with after he rescued us from the mysteries of the tramway Metcard system asked, “What can faith and hope be based on?” “Why did God need Paul when he had 12 perfect followers?” “Is Jesus ‘the carrot'(if you know what I mean) that Paul uses to attach his views to?” “Why is Christianity so violent with hell and heaven and like an ‘Arnold Shwarzenegger movie’?” – a man without guile who described himself as ‘post-christian’, I have prayed for him this evening.

Oh! The Parliament itself? – Well, religious people of all shapes and sizes. Many in traditional dress – like me! Registration was easy. The challenge is the 395 page PWR program book with myriad seminar options and the plenary sessions – the program starts at 8am and we finished at 10.15pm this evening! Clearly, I will have to have time off so as not to be writing a blog post at 1am!

The Opening Plenary session this evening consisted of greetings, song, dance, music, prayer and ceremony from the religious communities. Also some excellent addresses encouraging us to see the ills of the world: technology used for destruction, poverty, suffering in war torn Afghanistan, depression, MDGs and climate change; with the aim of discussing ways in which the religious communities of the world can “Make a world of difference: Hearing each other. Healing the earth” – the theme of the Parliament.

See the Opening Plenary Session video  and photos here.

The theme rang through the presentations and as a follower of Christ it was easy enough to run with the themes. Peace and harmony, social cohesion in a multi-faith world of diverse beliefs, compassion and justice, faith and hope – these were the dominant themes that came to me. This latter, faith and hope, was the one picked up by the curious and genuine ‘post-christian’ volunteer who took the opportunity to discuss it with me, a stranger, as we journeyed on the tram to our lodgings.

I will go to an early morning session on prayer in the Muslim tradition, a long term interest. I was delighted with Roman Catholic Archbishop Denis Hart who prayed the Aaronic blessing with the trinitarian, ‘In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.’

My ‘annoying factor’ was all the flashes from the cameras which continually interfered with the presentations even after the participants were asked not to use their flash cameras. It occurred to me that if this group of religious leaders are unable to discipline themselves and be prepared to sacrifice some photographs for the overall good of seeing and concentrating on the presentations, then what hope is there for us all to “Make a world of difference”? At the Opening Plenary ‘sins’ were mentioned, but not ‘our state of sin’. It was a Christ-follower’s dream opportunity to preach on our human condition – because collectively we are the fallen.

The orchestra and choir sang us out with a stirring ‘Ringing the bells of peace’.

My meditation at the close of Day 1:

1. How wonderfully good is God.
2. How can the religious people add to peace-making?
3. How do I live as a follower of Christ in a messy, muddled world?
4. How wonderfully good is God! – and so to sleep.

Further posts are at: Parliament of Religions – It’s coming! and at ‘Multi-faith society’-an oxymoron? and also at Parliament World Religions Day-1

Further videos, photos and news available at 2009 Parliament Coverage.