{"id":2081,"date":"2009-12-16T00:15:06","date_gmt":"2009-12-15T13:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/?p=2081"},"modified":"2009-12-16T00:27:43","modified_gmt":"2009-12-15T13:27:43","slug":"parliament-world-religions-day-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2009\/12\/16\/parliament-world-religions-day-7\/","title":{"rendered":"Parliament World Religions Day 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

This, the final day of the Parliament<\/span>, Colin and I decided to join with the Sikh community in their morning observance. This interest in the Sikh observance\u00a0links\u00a0back to\u00a0the Sikh\u00a0taxi driver I had\u00a0coming to the Parliament and also an extended conversation with a Sikh participant at the PWR on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u00a0‘Sikh\u00a0prayer and meditation’<\/span> inculcates a deep sense of inner peace through interactive chant. The words were translated and a cantor led the chanting of the responses for the recitation of the attributes of the Merciful, the Lord\u00a0Master, and upon completing numerous repetitions of\u00a0the chant, “I cannot survive without seeing my Beloved. My eyes are welling up with tears” I saw that an elderly man was wiping\u00a0tears from his\u00a0face. A very moving time of devotion. There is no formal priestly caste and public worship can be led by appropriately initiated male or female Sikhs. Meditation and prayer seek\u00a0communication with the Unknown. See more at\u00a0www.sikhinterfaithvic.org.au<\/a>.<\/p>\n

‘The Future of Religion in Australia? Melbourne’s Religious Leaders in Dialogue with Young People (Seminar 2)’<\/span> interestingly canvassed three questions:1. Is there a future for religion among young people in Australia? 2. How does your religion approach inter-religious marriage? 3. How do young people handle homelessness, substance abuse and mental illness? This was a superior panel engagement than for Seminar 1 because the young people who had formulated the questions\u00a0also joined in answering them.\u00a0Very valuable.<\/p>\n

‘Milestones and Signposts in Interfaith Relations’<\/span> were indicated by three panellists: Hindu, Muslim and Christian. The latter took St Francis of Assisi and his engagement with the Sultan in 1219 AD as an example; concluding: 1. Draw near in powerlessness; 2. Reject nothing that is true in other religions; 3. Do acts of service; 4. Witness to our faith. The Muslim speaker presented the ‘Medina Charter’ <\/a>of Mohammad with the non-Muslims of Medina as an interfaith signpost. But this did not get us far because Mohammad ended up expelling them and killing the third Jewish tribe. Muslim and Jewish accounts of the failure\u00a0differ but it is hardly seen as a model of good interfaith relations! The Hindu speaker presented the ‘giant umbrella’ of Hinduism with its emphasis on ritual rather than creedal faith under which innumerable groups can find shelter and live in harmony. Gandhi as the model peacemaker using non-violence to topple British rule.<\/p>\n

‘How can we all get on? It’s the big question of our time.’<\/span> was from Day 5 and relates to the above session. It is from Compass presenter Geraldine Doogue and a panel of five high profile international and Australian guest speakers attending the Parliament and recorded\u00a0for an ABC Compass episode (13 December 2009) on Parliament of the World’s Religions<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Lunch<\/span> included conversation with a Christian Spiritualist and getting ready for the Closing Ceremony. The security and queues were significantly increased, was the Australian public becoming increasingly interested in the Parliament of the World’s Religions? No, in just one very famous religious person,\u00a0the arrival of the Dalai Lama to the final session.<\/p>\n

The media’s interest in the PWR?<\/span> Throughout the Parliament there was some excellent coverage from the Age newspaper’s Religious Editor, Barney Zwartz and the ABC team led by Margaret Coffey. But the biggest circulation Melbourne newspaper the\u00a0‘Herald-Sun’ did not cover the seven day international event of\u00a05,000 delegates. Rabbi Levi\u00a0suggested that we may have received increased media coverage if the PWR had been a ‘sexpo’ rather that a religious parliament! A sad reflection on the very secular nature of Australian people. We do not seem ‘to get’ religion and its formative shaping of our lives and culture. A huge focus for our prayers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0‘Closing Ceremony of the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions’<\/span>. A highlight was Archbishop of Melbourne, Philip Freier’s blessing based on the Beatitudes\u00a0– see it here<\/a>. Sand animation artiste to the playing of the Didgeridoo and Tibetan music. Dalai Lama spoke of peace<\/a> and an enchanting scene where he was presented by Wurrunjeri Senior Elder Joy Wandin Murphy with the traditional gum branches and leaves and also the hide of a possum! The latter causing clear perplexity to the\u00a0Dalai lama who\u00a0placed it cautiously on a chair, it started to fall and after some to-ing and fro-ing between himself and Joy Murphy, finally had the possum hide\u00a0placed on his knee. I think we all enjoyed\u00a0this engagement\u00a0between vegetarian and carnivorous communities which was done with respect and goodwill. A good example of the\u00a0safe space for religious conversation, learning and co-operation that the PWR\u00a0engenders. Photo of the exchange here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ABC Video Day 7 – Farewelling Friends<\/a>\u00a0and much more on the ABC Religion Blog of the PWR <\/a>with thanks to Margaret Coffey and her Team.<\/p>\n

Interesting note on USA sending delegates to find out more at ‘Obama team seeks enlightenment on Muslim relations’<\/a>. Also\u00a0Hindu delegates issued a statement about\u00a0climate change – see ABC report here<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0Further videos, photos and news available at 2009 Parliament Coverage<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0My blog articles can be found at: Parliament of Religions \u2013 It\u2019s coming<\/a>!, and\u00a0at\u00a0Multi-faith society \u2013 an oxymoron? <\/a>and also at\u00a0Parliament World Religions Day-1<\/a>\u00a0and at Parliament\u00a0World Religions Day 1<\/a> and Parliament World Religions Day 2<\/a>\u00a0and Parliament World Religions Day 3<\/a> and Parliament World Religions Day 4<\/a>\u00a0and Parliament of Religions Day 5<\/a>\u00a0and Parliament of Religions Day 6<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This, the final day of the Parliament, Colin and I decided to join with the Sikh community in their morning observance. This interest in the Sikh observance\u00a0links\u00a0back to\u00a0the Sikh\u00a0taxi driver I had\u00a0coming to the Parliament and also an extended conversation … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2081"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2156,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2081\/revisions\/2156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}