Parliament of Worlds Religion 1999 Capetown SA

Author(s): Parliament of the World’s Religions
Publisher: USA Parliament of the Worlds Religions

Page 16

1999 PARLIAMENT OF
THE
PARLIAMENT AT WORK
THE 1999 PARLIAMENT ASSEMBLY During the final three days of the 1999 Parliament, the 1999 Parliament Assembly will be convened. The Assembly is a gathering of some three hundred religious and spiritual leaders, scholars, and activists who are committed to working together to make a better world. They will be joined in the Assembly by nearly 100 Participating Observers, persons representing some of the world's most influential institutions, including government, business, education, media, science, and civil society.
In four working sessions, the Assembly will imagine and describe concrete actions projects that can be implemented around the world. Over the next several years, the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions-in cooperation with the Millennium Institute and other regional and international groups and organizations-will work to connect project ideas to communities that can bring them to fruition.
Members of the 1999 Assembly will serve as "ambassadors" of the Parliament, bringing its work and its spirit to their own countries, cultures, and religious and spiritual traditions.
The full report from the 1999 Parliament Assembly will be published early in the year 2000.
CALL TO
OUR GUIDING INSTITUTIONS
The centerpiece of the work of the Parliament Assembly at the 1993 Parliament in Chicago was the document, "Towards A Global Ethic: An Initial Declaration." That document identified several ethical principles held in common by the the world's religious and spiritual traditions, and applied them to some of the critical issues facing the world today.
• Religion
• Government
At the 1999 Parliament, the work of the Assembly will be shaped by a new document, which draws on the principles set forth in "Towards a Global Ethic" as it calls some of the world's most powerful and most influential institutions:
Agriculture, Labor, Industry, and Commerce
• Education
Arts and Communications Media
Science and Medicine
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International Intergovernmental Organizations • Organizations of Civil Society.
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The Call invites these institutions and all persons involved with them to reflect on and to redefine their roles at the threshold of a new century.
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ASSEMBLY
MEMBERS
GIFTS OF SERVICE TO THE WORLD The 1999 Parliament of the World's Religions will provide inspiration and direction for those wishing to offer gifts of service to the world. To give such a gift is an expression of the fundamental spiritual inclination towards generosity, caring. hospitality, compassion, and good will. The extent to which goodness has existed in the world has always been directly related to the giving of such gifts and the spirit in which they are given. In spite of the progress made though ambitious endeavors and noble institutions, the fate of the world continues to rest on such gifts and now, more than ever.
The Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions-in partnership with the Millennium Institute of Arlington, Virginia -is seizing this unique opportunity to inspire individuals, organizations, nations, and religious and spiritual communities to offer strategic "millennial threshold" gifts that will make longterm differences within the planetary community.
For the past two years, the Council has worked to encourage the offering of such gifts, to identify exemplar gifts from around the world, and to collect descriptions of them for publication in the 1999 Parliament Book of Gifts Examples of gifts will be shared at the 1999 Parliament event, and the collected descriptions will be present at a convocation in the year 2000. These efforts will help to heighten reflection, inspire ot commitment, and focus attention on gifts of service as shining examples of creative engagement.
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