Parliament of Worlds Religion 2009 Melbourne Australia

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

Page 251

PROGRAM PA
Sunday, December 6, 2009
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/ Washingtonpost.com. Hirschfield is a President of the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, America's leading Jewish institution for religious pluralism.
Rabbi Irwin Kula, also a President of Clal - received the 2008 Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom Award for his work toward equality, liberty and a truly inter-religious community. Fast Company magazine and Religion and Ethics Newsweekly' (PBS) both named him one of the leaders shaping the American spiritual landscape. He is the author of Yearnings: Embracing the Sacred Messiness of Life, and is currently developing the Clinton Global Initiative commitment, Disruptive Spiritual Innovation.
Reality, Religion and Responsibilities: Individual Commitments
Tim Fischer
Rev James Haire
Room 110
Lecture
This is a major session of the Parliament with vastly experienced presenters. Most people entering politics are guided by their ethical and/or religious frameworks. Most people committing themselves to a religious tradition wish to make a better and more spiritual world. In this session, a well-known former politician and a well-known former church leader both of whom have moved into new roles, one as Australian Ambassador to the Vatican, and the other as the director of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture in Canberra, will speak about their current commitments and their thoughts on the role of religion and interreligious activity in Australian society and internationally. Tim Fischer, former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, will deliver an address, 'To see from the Holy See: Hearing. Helping and Happiness and Rev James Haire, Executive Director of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, will speak from his varied and extensive experiences, firstly from his childhood in Northern Ireland, his experience in church union and leading the third largest religious group in Australia (the Uniting Church in Australia - a union of Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian churches) and from his ecumenical and interfaith activities over the years.
HE The Honourable Timothy Andrew Fischer AC is the Australian Ambassador to the Vatican. He served as an officer in the infantry in Australia and Vietnam, followed by service in the New South Wales Parliament and the Australian Federal Parliament, where he held the titles of Leader of the National Party, Minister for Trade, and Deputy Prime Minister. Mr Fischer has a range of agricultural, export and transport business interests.
Rev James Haire, Former Moderator General of the Uniting Church of Australia, is Executive Director of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture. Professor Haire is also a Professor of Theology at Charles Sturt University and of the Public and Contextual Theology Strategic Research Centre. Professor Haire has sought cooperation between the various denominations and was Co-chair of the National Dialogue between the Uniting Church and Catholic Church in Australia from 1992 to 2004
2:30-4:00pm ENGAGEMENT SESSION
In Search of Sustainable Pathways
Joseph Gelfer Michael York Joni Stimson Samuel Alexander Room 111
Panel Discussion
Promising strategies for achieving a sustainable world can be found in the world's many faiths. This panel will present the following themes: [1] Planetary survival requires exploring alternative ways to live, and one promising way entails simplifying our lives by consuming less and living more; [2] Pagan polytheism's central focus is on ecology and healing the earth; (3) God's law can help humanity develop guidelines for environmental sustainability; (4) Gaia Consciousness is manifested as the environmental movement, earth-based spirituality. and a trend towards seeking unity within diversity; and (5) The future of peace requires the mobilisation of men of all faiths who reclaim what is naturally peaceful about being a religious man. (This talk is about religion, men and masculinity.) Panellists proceed from the shared assumption that a better world depends on healing within each faith, between different faiths and with those who choose no faith.
Joseph Gelfer has a PhD in religious studies from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He is an Honorary Research Associate at the School of Political and Social Inquiry at Monash University, Australia. Joseph is founding editor of Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality. His book, 'Numen, Old Men: Contemporary Masculine Spiritualities and the Problem of Patriarchy', is published by Equinox Publishers (London, 20091
At the Cherry Hill Seminary, Michael York focuses his teaching on comparative religions. He is Co-Chair of the American Academy of Religions Contemporary Pagan Studies Group and has authored 'Pagan Theology: Paganism as a World Religion'.
Joni Stimson earned a Bachelor of Social Work (Hons) from the University of Queensland in 1985. Her undergraduate work focused on community development, with an emphasis on social planning. Her independent Postgraduate Study at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel, led her to examine the philosophical underpinnings of the communities that formed the kibbutzim and how they have changed over time. For her Master of Social Work from the University of Sydney (1999), she focused her thesis, 'LEVITICUS Ecological Reading, on the creation of sustainable communities.
Samuel Alexander is a part-time lecturer and doctoral student at Melbourne Law School and the editor of Voluntary Simplicity: The Poetic Alternative to Consumer Culture 12009). He is also the founder of the Lite Poets Simplicity Collective, a grass-roots environmental organisation dedicated to the promotion and celebration of sustainable culture. Living simply and happily in a small hut that he built himself using mostly abandoned materials, he spends his time quietly planning, with youthful ambition, the non-violent erasure of consumer culture.
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