Parliament of Worlds Religion 2009 Melbourne Australia

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

Page 277

PROGRAM
Monday, December 7, 2009
11:30am-1:00pm INTERRELIGIOUS SESSION
Rev Heng Sure is the Director of the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery and a former Global Councilor of the United Religions Initiative. He has been a Buddhist monk for 33 years, and holds a PhD from the Graduate Theological Union, in Berkeley, California (USA) and an MA from the University of California, Berkeley. An author and musician, Rev Sure recently released the CD 'Paramita: American Buddhist Folk Songs.
African Religions in Latin America Stanley Krippner Rose Sackey-Milligan Room 102 Lecture It has been said that, 'Brazil is the heart of the world and the spiritistic religions are the heart of Brazil'. These spiritistic religions, with their emphasis on mediumship Ibenevolent spirit possession) and reincarnation (the belief in past lives), date back to the arrival of enslaved Africans in the Portuguese colony. Over the years, a syncretic process took place as the African religions took on aspects of Roman Catholicism as well as Native American rituals and iconic figures. This lecture will trace the historical development of the African religions of Brazil with special emphasis on how social class and geography have influenced their development. It will describe how they honour Nature, eg, conceptualising their deities as 'forces of Nature, and how they promote healing of the mind, body, spirit, and community. Finally, the lecture will illustrate how religious syncretism lives on in the 21st century. It will cover the humanism and liberatory perspectives of these faiths: how they promote freedom and liberation, good character and progressive human values; the concept of the immortality of the soul and good living: fidelity in human relationships; the sacredness of life; the principles of devotion, family and community: death and reincarnation and a host of other life-affirming principles. Stanley Krippner, PhD is a professor of psychology at Saybrook Graduate School in San Francisco, USA. He is a Fellow in the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. His research articles on the AfricanBrazilian religions have won him honorary membership in the Brazilian Federation of Umbanda and Candomble. In 2005, he received the Quincentennial Medal from the Masonic Lodges of Eastern Brazil for his promulgation of Brazilian culture. Rose Sackey-Milligan, PhD, is an award-winning anthropologist with eighteen years study and practice of the Lukumi and Yoruba faiths. In 1997 she received full ordination into the Lukumi priesthood. She served as a social change philanthropist and lectured on the global economy and the US environmental justice movement She is a Senior Program Associate at the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society. Northampton MA. She holds a BA in Social Science, and MA and PhD in Anthropology.
Sharing Wisdom in Search of Inner and Outer Peace Shantilal Somaiya Kala Acharya Terence Lovat K Sankarnarayan Homi Dhalla Geeta Mehta Gerard Hall Marika Vicziany Room 103 Panel Discussion Despite the human aspiration for peace, conflict and warfare continue to persist and endanger human life. However, the wisdom reflected in the scriptures of the world religions offers rays of hope. Hindus believe that peace in the human heart and peace on earth are interdependent. Prayers for appeasing external discord and internal unrest provide keys for peace. For Mahatma Gandhi, true Ahimsa is a life of nonviolence, love, strength and peace. Zarathushtra, the Prophet of ancient Iran, has inspired men and women about the need for inner peace in his teachings, termed as the Gathas. Buddhism, in its message of wisdom and compassion, preaches non-injury as the foremost practice. Jesus Christ preaches, 'Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God [Mt 5:9). Islam preaches peace through its doctrine of Divine Fatherhood and Human brotherhood. This session, led by a leading world Hindu and interfaith centre in Mumbai, will draw on the different traditions in offering guidelines for inner and outer peace. Dr SK Somaiya is Vice President of Somaiya Vidyavihar, an educational trust in Mumbai running 37 institutes with 27,000 students. He received the prestigious Luminosa award in July 2002 in New York from the Focolare Movement. He also led the Hindu Delegation to the Interreligious Congress organised at Astana, Kazakhstan in 2003 and 2006. Dr Somaiya participated in the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders in New York in 2000. Dr Mrs Kala Acharya is the director of K J Somaiya Bharatiya Sanskriti Peetham, a cultural and research institute. She has authored two books and edited several books, and she has organised interfaith dialogue Seminars in India and abroad. She is the working group member of the Congress of World's and Traditional Religions, Kazakhstan. Professor Terence Lovat is an experienced researcher who has managed research projects concerning Values Education, Religion and Spirituality. He has published several scholarly texts and more than eighty refereed articles in scholarly journals and books. Professor Lovat is a regular keynote presenter at national and international conferences, most recently in the areas of religion, values and Islam at governmentsponsored conferences in Russia and Ukraine. Mrs K Sankarnarayan is the Director of K J Somaiya Centre for Buddhist Studies. She received the Japan Foundation Fellowship under Scholars and Researchers and worked on two research projects with Prof Dr ichijo Ogawa, President, Otani University, Kyoto, Japan. She was invited as a Visiting Professor under the Japan Muhhosho Fellowship by the International Research Centre for Japanese Studies, Kyoto, Japan and was recognised as a Research Guide by the Mumbai University Member of Academic Council. Homi Dhalla holds an MA from Harvard and a PhD from Mumbai University. He was Assistant Professor at the Asia Institute, Shiraz University. Iran for two years. Dhalla has represented the Parsi com
www.parliamentofreligions.org 273