Parliament of Worlds Religion 2009 Melbourne Australia

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

Page 196

PROGRAM DERO
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Substance and Soul: An Exploration of Drug and Alcohol Abuse in the World's Non-Dual Religious Traditions
Trent Leighton
Room 219
Lecture
Substance abuse affects virtually every culture and community. The addict's drugging and drinking-from the Wall Street stock broker abusing cocaine to manage stress, to the Chinese labourer's dependence on opiates to block pain-is a spiritual problem, a metaphysical cry for help that local mosques, synagogues, churches and temples are uniquely qualified to address. While the proliferation of drug abuse is commonly considered a modern phenomenon, many of the world's religious traditions have been addressing the impulses underlying addiction since time immemorial. This interactive lecture will focus on the relationship between the compulsion to consume mind-altering chemicals and the desire for transcendence and self-awareness found in such non-dual spiritual practices and teachings as Advaita Vedanta, Chan and Zen Buddhism, Christian mysticism and Taoism. Central to this dialogue will be an in-depth exploration of the correlation between duality and suffering (emphasised by many religious lineages) and the mental health of the addict and their drug use.
Trent Leighton holds a Master's degree in Counselling Psychology and a Doctorate in Depth (or Analytical) Psychology. A lifelong student of many of the world's religious and spiritual traditions, Trent's primary focus is to develop a non-dual model of mental health utilising Jungian psychological principles coupled with the realisations of his Buddhist practice. A seasoned clinician specialising in substance abuse and chronic mental illness, Trent has shifted his focus to lecturing and teaching.
Landscape of Faith: Sharing Wisdom for a New Vision of Community - Part I: Living in Community
Janice Marie Johnson Room 220 Seminar
This one-day, interfaith educational seminar seeks to provide a context for community building by addressing the challenges of prejudice, injustice and alienation from the earth, while weaving the theme of the possibility of transformation through the arts throughout the day. Participants are asked to attend all four sessions. This introduction to the day will give educators an experiential skill building exercise for exploring the core issues of belonging to culture, community and religion. Using this interactive exercise, educators can involve high school to adult age groups in the sometimes challenging process of community building. Participants will discover and consider some of their basic reactions to cross-cultural differences within a safe and neutral space.
192 PWR Parliament of the World's Religions
INTERRELIGIOUS SESSION
Janice Marie Johnson serves as the Director of Lifespan Religious Education at the Community Church of New York. She is also a consultant, working primarily in the areas of interpersonal communication and conflict resolution within an interfaith, anti-racist, cross-cultural, and collaborative context.
INTERRELIGIOUS 11:30am-1:00pm
11:30am-1:00pm
Halting the Spread of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria: Challenges
for Faith
Gideon Byamugisha
Jean Duff
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick
Thomas Bohnett
Plenary Hall
Panel Discussion
The role of religion in fighting disease has many dimensions, some inspirational and some obstructive. We will explore examples of work on the ground and moral advocacy for HIV/AIDS as examples of both. Canon Gideon Byamugisha points to the complexity of moral challenges around HIV/AIDS but above all to the powerful potential that religion has within this battle. Interfaith initiatives have great potential to make major contributions. Jean Duff, Executive Director of the Center for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty, and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, long time Board Member of Catholic Relief Services, will describe ongoing efforts, especially in Nigeria, and action steps necessary for forward movement. Thomas Bohnett will describe emerging ideas on engaging faith in relation to the scourge of tuberculosis.
Canon Gideon Byamugisha is an ordained priest in the Church of Uganda. In 1992, he became the first African religious leader to openly declare his HIV-positive status. He has since devoted his life to an AIDS ministry, which has taken him to over forty countries in sub-Saharan Africa and many other parts of the world.
Jean Duff is Executive Director of the Center for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty (CIFA), whose mission is to increase the collective impact of the religious sector on global poverty. From 2005-2008, as Deputy Director of the Center for Global Justice and Reconciliation, she led Washington National Cathedral's global poverty program focusing on Malaria and Gender Justice. She holds graduate degrees in clinical psychology and in epidemiology, as well as certificates of continuing education from Harvard and Wharton Business schools.
Cardinal Theodore E McCarrick, PhD, DD, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, has visited many nations as a human rights advocate and to survey humanitarian needs. He has travelled to areas affected by major natural disasters, such as Central America, Sri Lanka and Louisiana and Mississippi post-Hurricane Katrina, to ensure people in need would receive assistance, and to bring prayer and financial support. He has been a member of the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom.
Thomas Bohnett graduated from Princeton University in 2007, majoring in the Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs. He spent 2007-2008 working for the International Rescue Committee in Uganda. He joined WFDD in November 2008 as Program Coordinator.