Parliament of Worlds Religion 2009 Melbourne Australia

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

Page 188

PROGRAM
Saturday, December 5, 2009
9:30-11:00am INTRARELIGIOUS SESSION
participants, students, elders and the community together to get in touch with the Ainu language and culture. Nana Osei Boakyewa Yiadom II. a noted African leader, is one of Ghana's queen mothers. Among the first African women to be elected vil lage chief, she is a fellow with the UN Institute for Training and Research, working on a project on refugee women. Since 1986, she has served as a consultant on the UN Decade for Women, an advisor to the Committee on African Women's Affairs, and president of the Pan African Human Rights Association
Poverty in Wealthy Countries: Challenges Ahead Jim Wallis Tim Costello Katherine Marshall Setri Nyomi Room 109 Panel Discussion The economic crisis and catastrophes such as Hurricane Katrina, unrest in suburban Paris, and Australia's fires highlight that poverty is alive and real in the world's wealthiest societies. For millions of people in societies of great wealth, hunger is a daily reality, and hope is in short supply. This session will focus on why inequality cndures and increases and will take stock of where and how religious leaders and institutions can best serve as advocates and leaders of social change. Additionally. it will consider the request of the Uppsalla Interfaith Climate Manifesto 2008 for 'binding cuts for the rich world on top of their domestic obligations; according to the principles of responsibility and capability countries should pay for international cuts in addition to their own domestic initiatives'. How can climate change be addressed without further impacting the poor? Jim Wallis is a best selling author, public theologian, speaker and international commentator on faith and public life. He is the author of 'The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith & Politics in a Post-Religious Right America' and 'God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It'. Wallis speaks around the United States, and his columns appear in major newspapers, including The New York Times and Washington Post Tim Costello is a leading Australian voice on social justice issues, having spearheaded public debates on gambling, urban poverty, homelessness, reconciliation and substance abuse. As CEO of World Vision Australia, Tim has insisted that the issues surrounding global poverty be on the national agenda, World Vision serves nearly 100 million people worldwide. Tim's awards include Victorian of the Year, Officer of the Order of Australia, Victorian Australian of the Year, and the Australian Peace Prize. Katherine Marshall is a Senior Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and Visiting Professor in the Government Department and the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. She leads the Berkley Center's work on faith-inspired institu tions working in development, involving a series of regional background papers and consultations with academics and practitioners, and a series of reviews of development topics. Rev Dr Setri Nyomi is the General Secretary of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC)--the first non-European to serve in this position. He comes from Ghana, and has studied in the University of Ghana and Trinity Seminary in Ghana as well as Yale University and Princeton Theological Seminary in the USA. WARC is the global umbrella body of Presbyterian, Reformed, Congregational, Waldensian and some United and Uniting Churches
Asian Conference of Religions for Peace (Religions for Peace Asia) Dr Din Syamsuddin, Moderator Dr Lilian Sison Sunggon Kim Theophilus Bela Azril Mohd Amin Des Cahill Room 110 Seminar The Asian Conference of Religions for Peace, also known as Religions for Peace Asia, is the world's largest regional body of religiously inspired people working for peace, harmony and the well-being of people in their own countries, in the Asian-Pacific region and across the world. The Asian Conference of Religions for Peace, in tandem with its partner and parent, Religions for Peace International, works to coordinate the various Asian religious heritages in pursuing peace and interreligious harmony based on the tenets of truth, justice, compassion and the transcendent dignity of the human person. This seminar will discuss the work of ACRP, building on the statement and recommendations for action from the October 2008 assembly in Manila. It will also focus on selected countries and their interfaith contexts. The session will be led by the ACRP moderator, Prof Din Syamsuddin (Indonesia) and the ACRP deputy moderator, Prof Des Cahill (Australia) Dr Din Syamsuddin is an author and president of Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's largest modernist Muslim social and educational organisation. He is vice general chair of the Indonesian Ulama Council, professor of Islamic political thought at the National Islamic University in Jakarta, and moderator and a president of the Asian Conference on Religion for Peace, based in Seoul Dr Lilian Sison is chair of the Asia Pacific Women of Faith Network, Religions for Peace; a member of the IWCC Global Women of Faith Network, and dean of the Graduate School of the University of San Tomas, Philippines. Dr Sunggon Kim, a member of the South Korean Parliament, 15 Secretary General of the Asian Conference of Religions for Peace Theophilus Bela is secretary general of the Indonesian Committee on Religion and Peace IICom RPI and founding chairperson of the Jakarta Christian Communication Forum (JCCF). He also cofounded Catholic Solidarity for Democracy in Indonesia, an NGO. Azril Mohd Amin, a lawyer by profession, is currently the Chairman of Islamic Outreach ABIM, an agency under the patronage of the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia. He has extensive involvement in interfaithbased initiatives, in particular through the World Council of Muslim for Interfaith Relations (WCMIR) and the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia - ABIM - where he was vice president for international affairs (2003-2009). He is currently vice moderator of the Asian Coordinating Team, World Conference of Religions for Peace (WCRP) and has presented views at several of its events, including at the recent International Summit of Religious Youth Leaders on Disarmament for Shared Security held in Kathmandu in July 2009. He lives in Malaysia with his wife and three children Desmond Cahill, Professor of Intercultural Studies at RMIT University in Melbourne, is chair of Religions for Peace Australia and deputy moderator of Religions for Peace Asia. He is the Melbourne program director for the current Parliament.
184 PWR - Parliament of the World's Religions