God has got me off to a running start! – this is the\u00a0only way I can describe the day.<\/p>\n
The first day of the Parliament of World Religions <\/a>(PWR)\u00a0in Melbourne began after arrival from Tasmania to Melbourne airport with<\/p>\n 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\u00a0PWR program\u00a0book with myriad seminar options and the\u00a0plenary sessions – the program\u00a0starts 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!<\/p>\n The Opening Plenary session\u00a0this evening\u00a0consisted of greetings, song, dance, music, prayer and ceremony<\/a> 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<\/a>, depression, MDGs\u00a0and 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.<\/p>\n See the Opening Plenary Session video <\/a>\u00a0and photos <\/a>here.<\/p>\n 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\u00a0multi-faith world of diverse beliefs, compassion and justice, faith and hope – these\u00a0were the dominant themes that came to me. This latter, faith and hope,\u00a0was the one picked up by the curious and genuine\u00a0‘post-christian’ volunteer who took the opportunity to discuss it with\u00a0me, a stranger,\u00a0as we journeyed on the tram to our lodgings.<\/p>\n 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.’<\/p>\n 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\u00a0are 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\u00a0‘sins’ were mentioned,\u00a0but not ‘our state of sin’. It was a\u00a0Christ-follower’s dream opportunity to preach on our human condition – because\u00a0collectively we\u00a0are the fallen.<\/p>\n The orchestra and choir sang us out with a stirring ‘Ringing the bells of peace’.<\/p>\n My meditation at the close of Day 1:<\/p>\n Further posts\u00a0are at: Parliament of Religions – It’s coming!<\/a> and\u00a0at\u00a0‘Multi-faith society’-an oxymoron?<\/a>\u00a0and also at\u00a0Parliament World Religions Day-1<\/a><\/p>\n Further videos, photos and news available at 2009 Parliament Coverage<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" God has got me off to a running start! – this is the\u00a0only way I can describe the day. The first day of the Parliament of World Religions (PWR)\u00a0in Melbourne began after arrival from Tasmania to Melbourne airport with a … Continue reading \n
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