Gandhi Before Gandhi

Author(s): Bipin Doshi, Priti Shah
Publisher: Jain Academy Educational Research Center Promotion Trust Mumbai

Page 16

parliament of world religionis
September 11th to September 27th. 1893
Chicago minister, Rev.John Henry Barrows.
As a response to fears that the fair would unduly emphasize material advancements, a group of liberal Protestant Clergymen, headed by Charles C. Bonney, a Chicago educator and legal expert, developed plans for giving religion an " Appropriate Place" at the exposition. Plans were established to promote a series of separate denominational religious conferences beginning in May of 1893, at which representatives from various faiths would explicate the particulars of their religions. These religious conferences would then culminate in a seventeen-day "World's Parliament of Religions", to which representatives of all the world's great religions were invited. Each of the seventeen days was to be devoted to a specific theme of ethical, theological, historical or moral importance, Administrative responsibilities for organizing and coordination of the mammoth undertaking were placed in the hands of an enterprising
Barrows and his ad hoc committee spent almost two years in Herculean preparations, soliciting participants and support for the parliament of Religions. Thousands of letters were exchanged with representatives of the various world religions. The dream became a reality on September 11, 1893 in the hall of Columbus in the art Institute of Chicago, when Cardinal Gibbons solemnly lifted his hands, silenced an overflowing crowd, and intoned the prayer...
"Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,
Praise him, all creature here below, Praise him above, ye heavenly host, Praise Father, Son & Holy Ghost."