Parliament of Worlds Religion 2009 Melbourne Australia

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

Page 232

PROGRAM
Sunday, December 6, 2009
projects around the world. Interfaith dialogue, engagement and action are central to the work of the Center. Dr Buchanan has his PhD from the University of Chicago in Comparative Religion and Value Systems. He has published widely and lecture throughout the world.
Who Do We Want To Be: Exploring the Mission of the Jewish People in the 21st Century
Rabbi David Rosen Rachael Kohn, Moderator Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence Rabbi Brad Hirschfield Rabbi David Saperstein Room 203
Panel Discussion
Contemporary Judaism, whether as expressed in Israel itself or in the Jewish Diaspora, faces many challenges as it moves further away in time from the Holocaust and from the foundation of Israel. This panel, consisting of several leading Jewish leaders and thinkers, will discuss these challenges and the evolving nature of Judaism in the 21st century. The session will be facilitated by Rachael Kohn, one of Australia's leading religious affairs commentators. Director of the American Jewish Committee's Department for Interreligious Affairs and the Heilbrunn Institute for International Interreligious Understanding, Rabbi David Rosen serves on several international interreligious organisations. Formerly Chief Rabbi of Ireland, he is the immediate past Chair of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations, a broad-based coalition of Jewish organisations representing world Jewry to other religions.
Rachael Kohn is producer and presenter of The Spirit of Things on ABC Radio National.
Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence is Senior Rabbi at The Great Synagogue, Sydney. Ile serves as registrar and a judge on the Sydney Beth Din and is Orthodox rabbinic advisor to the New South Wales Board of Jewish Deputies and the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. He is a founder member of the NSW Jewish Arbitrators and Mediators Service. He was formerly Rabbi in Auckland and a founder member of the Auckland Interfaith Council. He holds a degree in Jurisprudence from Oxford University and has been associated with interfaith dialogue and the CCJ since student days. Rabbi Lawrence is a keen technophile, broadcaster and lecturer. Other interests include the environment, magic, Gilbert & Sullivan and skydiving. Rabbi Lawrence is married to Mandy and has four children ranging from two to sixteen years old.
Rabbi Brad Hirschfield is an acclaimed interfaith activist described by Newsweek as 'one of America's most influential rabbis'. He is the creator of 'Building Bridges' and 'American Pilgrimage on Bridges TV, the author of "You Don't Have To Be Wrong For Me To Be Right: Finding Faith Without Fanaticism', and a columnist for Beliefnet.com and Newsweek/ Washington Post.com. Hirschfield is the President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, America's leading Jewish institution for religious pluralism.
Designated in Newsweek's 2009 list as the most influential rabbi in the United States and described in a Washington Post profile as the quintessential religious lobbyist on Capitol Hill, Rabbi David Saperstein represents the national Reform Jewish Movement to Congress and the Administration as the Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.
228 PWR Parliament of the World's Religions
The February 2009 Bushfires in Victoria: Religious Response in the Role of Recovery and Renewal
9:30-11:00am INTRARELIGIOUS SESSION
Chi Kwang Sunim Christine Nixon
Brother Trevor Parton
Pastor Russell Wright
Room 204
Panel Discussion
In February 2009, Australia experienced the most devastating bushfire in the country's history. Nearly 200 people were killed, and more than 400 more were injured, as fires spread rapidly across the land. In the aftermath of the disaster, relief workers from many religious communities came together to help the survivors. Reverend Chi Kwang Sunim, a Buddhist nun and survivor of the Kinglake fires. will lead a dialogue with Christine Nixon, Chair of the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority, and several religious leaders, about working with emergency relief, dealing with the suffering and grief of survivors and victims, and rebuilding community. The presenters will also share stories of outstanding acts of kindness experienced during the Kinglake Ranges' recovery and renewal, as well as look into deeper questions of ecological sustainability.
Chi Kwang Sunim has been a Zen Buddhist nun for 30 years. Burn in Korea, she now resides in Kinglake, Victoria. She is a founding member of the Buddhist Library in Sydney, Wat Buddha Dharma, and The Seon Centre, and is a seasoned meditation and Buddhist teacher. She is currently Chair of the Australian Sangha Association and recognised in Buddhist and Interfaith circles in Australia and abroad.
Christine Nixon is the Chair of the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority (VBRRAJ. Prior to this, Christine was the Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, having served New South Wales Police from 1972 and Victoria Police from 2001. Christine is an Advisory Board member of the Alannah & Madeline Foundation, and a patron of the Blue Ribbon Foundation.
Brother Trevor Parton is resident at the Christian Brothers Centre for Ecology and Spirituality in Glenburn, Victoria, within the area devastated by the bushfires. Trevor is a lecturer and presenter at Glenburn, as well as in Hobart, Brisbane and Perth. His work concentrates on eco-literacy and on creating a more functional and spiritual relationship between the human and the natural world.
Pastor Russell Wright is the Christian Outreach Centre's mission and operations manager. He has managed disaster relief projects in both Australia and overseas, including the Asian tsunami and Kinglake bushfires. For eight years, he has led more than 300 youth in mission training in Asia, in hopes of creating a new generation of community outreach leaders.
Jain principles for Corporate Social Responsibility
Dipak Jain
Room 207
Lecture
Dr Dipak Jain, former dean of the Kellogg School of Management, will address business ethics from a Jain perspective. Over the past year, the economic tsunami that swept through the world's financial markets has highlighted weaknesses in the global banking system. The