Parliament of Worlds Religion 2009 Melbourne Australia

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

Page 292

PROG
Monday, December 7, 2009
2:30-4:00pm ENGAGEMENT SESSION
Projects of the Clijah Interfaith Institute include the bi-annual meeting of the board of World Religious Leaders, the Educational Network, as well as the Jewish and the Muslim Theology of the Religious Other Dharma Master Hsin Tao was born in Burma in 1948 and came to Taiwan at age 13. He became a monk at age 25 and established the Wu-sheng Monastery on Ling-jiou mountain in 1983. He founded the Museum of World Religions and is president of the Global Family of Love and Peace. The series of Buddhist-Muslim dialogues he initiated in 2001 has been conducted in ten countries, including UNESCO Paris and UN in New York Bhai Sahib Dr Mohinder Singh comes from a line of spiritual leaders, and is Chairman of Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha. He is a retired civil and structural engineer, with two honorary Doctorates for work in
Toronto, and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto at Mississauga. Formerly president of the Religious Education Association of the US and Canada, he is author of 'Redeeming the Time: A Political Theology of the Environment (Continuum 1997). His research and teaching are in the areas of ethics and ecology Andrew K Newman is Project Coordinator for the Million TreesNYC initiative. He has experience in working with diverse populations in the area of community engagement and has an academic background in religious studies
Hollister Award from the Temple of Understanding Paul Knitter is the Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions. and Culture at Union Theological Seminary, New York. Previously, he taught theology at Xavier University in Cincinnati. His groundbreaking 1985 book 'No Other Name?' addresses interreligious dialogue, as well as human and ecological well-being. Knitter is on the Board of Trustees for the International, Interreligious Peace Council, which was formed after the 1993 Parliament of the World Religions.
Educating Religious Leaders for a Multi-Religious World Don Swearer, Moderator Hajjah Maria Ulfah Michael Melchior Antje Jackelén Pal Ahluwalia Swami Atmapriyananda Eshin Nishimura Room 210 Panel Discussion
Green Buildings, Green Cities - An Ethical Path Forward Steve Perkins Stephen Scharper Andrew Newman Room 209 Panel Discussion The challenge of sustainability and climate change calls all people, and especially religious and spiritual communities, to dramatically reduce their use of resourcesespecially energy--to avert planetary disaster. This challenge is occurring in the context of global urbanisation: 50 percent of the world's population now lives in cities. Unless cities can decrease their emissions and restore their ecological integrity, our children and grandchildren will inherit a degraded, even an uninhabitable Earth. Fortunately, cities have a unique potential to offer residents a good quality of life while using resources wisely as a result of their density, cultural creativity and social networks for innovation. Religious and spiritual com munities can now play many roles in this move toward urban sustainability. They raise up the Creation as a gift from God to be protected, rather than a commodity to be consumed. They support each other in the struggle to change behaviours. They witness to the justice demands of the poor and disempowered. And they model new, more sustainable ways of being and acting, both individually and collectively. This program will explore ways that religious communities and interreligious organisations are providing leadership in this movement toward urban sustainability.
How is the next generation of religious leaders being educated? Does their preparation include knowledge of other religious traditions, insights into the modern interfaith movement and training in working together with leaders from other religions? This panel, created by the Henry Luce Foundation-funded Task Force of Theological Education which represents fifteen US seminaries, will open some of these questions and begin an exploralion that, it is hoped, will be carried on in places around the world where religious leaders are being educated. Emphasis is placed on the initial' nature of this discussion. Six religious educators plus the moderator, each from a different religion, will comprise the panel. Since no one person can represent the many different ways religious leaders are educated in each tradition, the panellists will give examples from their own experience. They may also place these experiences in the larger framework of typical educations in their tradition. Interaction among the panel members and with the audience will undoubtedly lend further insights into the topic. Participants who are interested in this issue will be encouraged to carry on this explorative discussion at daily 'Educating Religious Leaders for a Multi-Religious World' seminars and to stay in contact with each other. Donald K Swearer is the Director for the Center for the Study of World Religions and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies at Harvard Divinity School. He was previously the Charles and Harriet Cox McDowell Professor of Religion at Swarthmore College. His publications on Buddhism, comparative religions and interreligious dialogue include 'Dialogue: The key to Understanding Other Religions' and 'For the sake of the World: The Spirit of Buddhist and Christian Monasticism, Hajjah Maria Ulfah is a lecturer and Vice Rector of the Institute for Qur'anic Studies in Jakarta, Indonesia, In 1980, she won both the national Qur'an recitation competition in Jakarta and the international Qur'an recitation competition in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As a professional Qur'an reciter, she has appeared all over Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe, North America, Australia and Japan. Rabbi Michael Melchior hails from Denmark, where his family members have served as Chief Rabbis for sever generations. In 1999. he was elected to the Knesset, where he became one of Israel's leading
Dr Stephen Perkins is senior vice president of the Center for Neighborhood Technology, a Chicago-based organisation that promotes sustainable urban communities. He has organised multiple urban revitalisation projects in Chicago and is currently working to make the 2009 Parliament event carbon neutral. Stephen Bede Scharper is Associate Professor with the Centre for the Study of Religion and the Centre for Environment at the University of
288 PWR - Parliament of the World's Religions Jain Education International