Parliament of Worlds Religion 2009 Melbourne Australia

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

Page 310

PROC
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
9:30-11:00am INTRARELIGIOUS SESSION
Not Broken Armando Ibanez, Director Room 107 Film
Dr Ranbir Singh Sandhu is Professor Emeritus at The Ohio State University. He has served as President of the Interfaith Association of Central Ohio and as the founding Secretary General of the World Sikh Council - America Region. He is the author of the authoritative book 'Struggle for Justice: Speeches and Conversations of Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale Ajmer Singh Gill, President of the Sikh-Council-of-Australia, the umbrella body for the Sikh community in Australia, was born in Singapore, raised in Malaysia and educated in England. Since 1981 he has served as an educator in WA and NSW and Senior Education Officer in the NT Under his leadership various community development projects, focusing on Integration-Awareness-Harmony, have been successfully delivered, including Sikh Regiment's ANZAC-Day participation, Sikh Scouts, World Sikh Conference, Multi-Faith Projects and Sikh Youth-Camps.
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast of the United States, including the city of New Orleans. People of all races and ethnicities, from all walks of life. and from many different faiths were forced to unite, not only during the disaster, but also along the lengthy and ongoing road to recovery. This award-winning documentary shows how, amidst the most trying of circumstances, spirituality shapes, transforms and expresses our common humanity. Father Armando Ibanez, a Dominican friar, is a filmmaker, writer. poel and prolessor. He produced and directed 'Not Broken. winner of Worldfest's Platinum Remi Award. The AFI graduate is the founder of Pluma Pictures, a nonprofit film production company dedicated to producing films with inherent universal values, such as peace. justice and the importance of community. Armando, listed in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, teaches filmmaking at Flashpoint Academy of Media Arts & Sciences, Chicago, Illinois.
Living a Good Life: The Secular Way Meredith Doig, Moderator lan Robinson Dr John L Perkins Stephen Stuart Brian Ellis Russell Blackford Room 109 Panel Discussion
Sikh Diaspora and Global Sikh Community Kuldeep Singh, Moderator Dr Indrajit Singh Navkiran Singh Dr Ranbir Singh Sandhu Ajmer Singh Gill Room 108 Panel Discussion The Sikh community is now spread throughout the whole world. With Punjab as their homeland, Sikhs have ventured into nearly every corner of the world and become a part of the fabric of the societies in which they live. This session focuses on the development, engagement, and challenges being faced by Sikh communities in Europe, South Asia, North America, and Australia and the need for an effective international Sikh organisation to run the affairs of the faith at an international level. Kuldeep Singh is the President of the Sikh Youth of America. He has been the Secretary of the World Sikh Council, Americas, among other positions held in the global Sikh community. He also has over 30 years of experience in working with youth, holding camps and retreats, inspiring Sikh values, and infusing the spirit of human oneness in them, Graduates of his camps have gone into the world and opened several nonprofit endeavors to help humanity. Dr Indrajit Singh, OBE. is the Director of Network of Sikh Organisations (UK) and is the Editor of the Sikh Messenger. He was the first nonChristian to be awarded the UK Templeton Prize for the furtherance of spiritual and ethical understanding. He was awarded the Order of the British Empire in June 1996. He is well respected arnong the religious community of the UK. Navkiran Singh BA, LLB, is an experienced human rights advocate and attorney who has significant experience in the protection of human rights based on religious identity. He has represented cases of involuntary disappearances before the Sub Committees of the United Nations at Geneva and New York, and has appeared in foreign courts as an expert witness on human rights in South Asia. He is also actively involved in the campaign against the death penalty.
A panel of Secularists, Atheists, Humanists and Rationalists will present the case for a nonreligious approach to life, based on the secular values of respect for people, personal integrity, trustworthiness and benevolence. They will argue for a secular approach to governance based on democratic freedom, secular education, economic fairness, tolerance and the separation of church and state. The panel will discuss why it is important for human beings to find answers to the key questions about human existence using evidence and reason, without the need to import meaning from another dimension by imagining transcendental forces or beings. A major portion of the session will be devoted to interaction with the audience. Dr Meredith Doig is Secretary and Treasurer of the Rationalist Society of Australia Now a professional company director and executive coach/ mentor, she spent 25 years in blue chip corporates and management consulting, while also active in the women's movement. Her PhD was on The Nature of Organisational Sustainability lan Robinson is President of the Rationalist Society of Australia and is a former editor of Australian Rationalist. He worked for more than twenty years as a senior curriculum officer, researcher and professional development officer with the Victorian Education Department and wrote their basic curriculum document, 'The Primary School Curriculum: A Guide for Victoria Schools (1979). He is also a writer, actor and director. Dr John L Perkins is an economist, secular activist and a regular contributor to freethought magazines. He has qualifications from universities in Melbourne and London, is a member of the Rationalist Society of Australia, the Australian Sceptics, the Humanist Society of Victoria, a public relations team member of the Atheist Foundation of Australia, and a founding member and president of the Secular Party of Australia. Stephen Stuart is the President. Humanist Society of Victoria Inc. Professor Brian Ellis taught philosophy of Science at the University of Melbourne and La Trobe University and is a humanist. In his retirement he has published a monograph, "The Metaphysics of Scientific Realism (Acumen Press, 2009). Russell Blackford is a writer, editor and academic. He teaches parttime in the School of Philosophy and Bioethics at Monash University and is editor-in-chief of 'The Journal of Evolution and Technology. With Udo Schuklenk he is editing a collection of original essays by prominent atheists, humanists and sceptics, entitled Voices of Disbelief
306 PWR - Parliament of the World's Religions