Parliament of Worlds Religion 2009 Melbourne Australia

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

Page 222

PROGRAM DE
Saturday, December 5, 2009
gions found themselves challenged and then enabled to work together in confronting common problems in their neighbourhoods, nation and world? How does 'dia-praxis' enable 'dia-logue'?
This is part of a symposium entitled 'Educating Religious Leaders for a Multi-Religious World'. The Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions, with the support of The Henry Luce Foundation, has coordinated with fifteen theological institutions to explore ways to increase education for interfaith leadership in North American theological schools. Institutions strongly acknowledged the urgency of interfaith engagement and the preparation of a religious leadership equipped with knowledge and understanding of the plurality of faith traditions in the contemporary world.
Landscape of Faith: Sharing Wisdom for a New Vision of Community - Part IV: The Arts as Transformation
Orlanda Brugnola
Jindi Woraback
Room 220
Artistic Performance and Interactive Workshop
This one-day, interfaith educational seminar seeks to provide antext for community building by addressing the challenges of prejudice, injustice and alienation from the earth while weaving the possibility of transformation through the arts throughout the day. Participants are asked to attend all four sessions. The arts have the potential to bring diverse peoples into new understandings, co-operative peace-making and shared re-visioning of relationships. The key to the power of the arts is their capacity to evoke memory and enact or make visible the sacred. When people make art together, it is a manifestation of their highest selves and as such is a transformational experience. During the Open Space, a presentation on this theme will be followed by Aboriginal dances by the Group Jindi Woraback.
Also during the Open Space, there will be opportunity to create an artwork that suggests the sacred landscape of peoples' interactions during the Parliament. Patterns will be made by the placement of 10,000 squares of colored paper, each representing a participant in the Parliament. As many people as possible will be invited to help in creating this work. The process will be accessible for persons in wheelchairs. Out of respect for the environment, only 200 sheets of paper will be used in creating the 1x6 meter work, which will be recycled at the close of the Parliament.
Orlanda Brugnola is an interdisciplinary scholar teaching philosophy and religious studies at John Jay College. She has an MFA in painting and curates art exhibitions for college galleries. She is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister who has worked over the years for the International Association for Religious Freedom.
Jindi Woraback is an Aboriginal Dance Group that comprises Wurundjeri youth and an elder from the North West of Australia
218 PWR- Parliament of the World's Religions
9:00-10:30pm EVENING PROGRAMMING
EVENING PROGRAMMING 9:00-10:30pm
The Sacred Planet
Dr Joseph Runzo, Director Room 107
Film
Filmed on location in Japan, the Yukon and Southern California, 'The Sacred Planet' promotes ethical responsibility toward the environment. It addresses and proposes a solution to the global environmental crisis with science, government, business, NGOs, individuals and the world's religious traditions working together for sustainable living. This film shows that the world's religions have an essential role in changing attitudes and fostering a sense of sacred connection and proper stewardship of the earth. The film was directed by Joseph Runzo and Neil Mclean.
Dr Joseph Runzo is Executive Director and President of the Board of Directors of the Global Ethics and Religion Forum, an educational nonprofit dedicated to global ethical responsibility. He has written and lectured extensively around the world on comparative religion, religious ethics, human rights and the ethics of war and peace. He is Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Chapman University, USA, and a Life Fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, UK.