Parliament of Worlds Religion 2009 Melbourne Australia

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

Page 298

PROGRAM DE Monday, December 7, 2009
4:30-6:00pm OPEN SPACE
Sacred Music of India: Natesan Ramani and Manjiri Kelkar Natesan Ramani Manjiri Kelkar Room 201 Artistic Performance This unique double bill combines vocal and instrumental performances of north and south Indian classical music. The music of the south, Carnatac, is highly sophisticated and has remained devotional, untouched by Muslim influences, while north Indian music, with patronage at the courts, assumed a romantic colour as it came under Persian influence. Beloved flautist Natesan Ramani will offer selected compositions of Carnatic music. Acclaimed Hindustani classical vocalist Manjiri Kelkar will sing selected traditional north Indian sacred music. Revered and much-loved Dr Natesan Ramani, a legend in his own lifetime, represents the best of Carnatic sacred music. He touches the hearts of his audiences, as Lord Krishna with his flute did the hearts of his gopies (female cowherd devoteesl, with his simple soprano bamboo flute. Like Panna Lal Ghosh, Dr Ramani, using a longer flute, can play north Indian ragas with equal ease, which are both enchanting and powerful His ensemble includes his illustrious son Thiagarajan and the brilliant percussionist Thanjavur Ramadas on the Mridangam. The young and golden-voiced Manjiri is the first winner of India's most highly regarded Bismillah Khan Award. In a short time, she has been invited to the envy of older masters-to all five major Indian music festivals. She has a rare, melodious voice and a fine sense of intonation She moves, like the late Kesarbai Kerkar, with graceful ease from the purely sacred classical to the semi-classical romantic forms like Thumri and Tappa. Manjiri is accompanied on the tabla by Milind I lingane and by Suyog Kundalkar on the harmonium.
Strangers Becoming Neighbours: Community Interfaith Responses to Interdependence (Session 2) Helen Spector, Open Space Facilitator Room 207 Interactive Workshop This session features lively exchanges of stories of interfaith engagement among participants from around the world, highlighting the developmental challenges and new-found strengths that accompany such experiences. Participants will have the opportunity to exchange practices that work and engage about issues of mutual interest that they are addressing in diverse contexts. In the process, they will build new relationships as they learn new ways to address their local situations. This session will utilise Open Space Technology to enable participants to set the topic agenda and choose their own conversations. We will end with brief reports from each conversation group Helen Spector serves on the Board of Trustees for the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions. She joined the Board in 1990 to help plan the 1993 Parliament Centenary Celebration and has served as co-chair for the Site Selection task forces that selected Barcelona (2004) and Melbourne (2009) for Parliament gatherings. Helen lives in Portland, Oregon.
Open Space Conversation with Cardinal McCarrick Cardinal Theodore McCarrick Room 204 In this Open Space program, Parliament attendees are invited to enter into informal conversation with the polyglot Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, emeritus Archbishop of Washington D.C., a leading figure in American Catholicism., on issues associated with his own journey of faith, the changing nature of spirituality and current de velopments in Catholicism and other religious traditions. The Cardinal is also experienced in themes associated with religious freedo
h religious freedom, social justice and international security as well as national and international migration. The focus will be on dialogue and exchange of ideas in a complex and globalizing world. Cardinal Theodore E McCarrick, PhD, DD, Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, has visited many nations as a human rights advocate and to survey humanitarian needs. He has travelled to areas affected by major natural disasters, such as Central America, Sri Lanka and Louisiana and Mississippi post-Hurricane Katrina, to ensure people in need would receive assistance, and to bring prayer and financial support. He has been a member of the United States Commission for International Religious Freedom.
Sharing the Zoroastrian Environmentalist Faith: Building Bridges with Indigenous Communities Rashna Ghadialy Room 209 Zoroastrians worship and pray to Ahura Mazda (Creator). the Yazatas (pre-Zoroastrian divinities); and revere the Amesha Spentas in our prayers. The Amesha Spentas (humankind, animals, fire and other luminaries, metals and minerals, earth, water and land) when loosely translated in English are the divine sparks' or 'bountiful immortals which help govern Ahura Mazda's creation. In other word, we pray both to the Creator and his Creation. Care for the environment, thus, is an imperative for Zoroastrians. Similarly, building bridges with people of all faiths, especially those that share common beliefs with us becomes a part of Zoroastrian living and learning. In this vein, I started a green consulting business, Think Green, to work on environment related issues; share new innovational technologies with others; and above all, care for the earth. I have been fortunate enough to have worked and shared ideas regarding alternative energy with a multi-faith indigenous group in Tharparkar, Pakistan. My presentation will discuss the Zoroastrian beliefs and practices pertaining to the environment, my work with the Thari people in Pakistan, and a documentary on the lives of the indigenous Thari people called Colours of the Sand.
Rashna Ghadialy is a Pakistani-American Zoroastrian residing in Chicago, USA. She has been actively involved in the North American
294 PWR - Parliament of the World's Religions