Parliament of Worlds Religion 2009 Melbourne Australia

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

Page 312

PROGRAM DE Tuesday, December 8, 2009
9:30-11:00am INTRARELIGIOUS SESSION
His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is the founder of the Art of Living Foundation, a nonprofit organisation offering spiritual workshops and humanitarian relief, and founder of the International Association for Human Values. His philosophy is popular throughout the world, and Shankar has been recognised with numerous awards and titles, including the title of Yoga Shiromani and the Guru Mahatmya Award. His Holiness Swami Amarananda is the senior monk of the Ramakrishna Order and president of the Centre Vedantique in Geneva He is a former residential school headmaster and expert on disaster management. He has participated in numerous multireligious programs, including the World Faiths Development Dialogue, meetings of the Community of Santo Egidio, the interreligious Platform in Geneva and the World Council of Churches. Amma Sri Karunamayi is from Penusila Ashram. Founder of a number of free humanitarian programs including schools and hospitals serving the poor, she is known for her motherly compassion. Sri Karunamayi is a revered teacher of universal values of love and service to others. His Holiness Swami Chidanana Saraswati is the president and spiritual head of Paramarth Niketan, one of the largest spiritual institutions in India. He is the founder and chairman of the India Heritage Research Foundation, which sponsors a wide range of humanitarian and educational programs. Saraswati is also a long-time participant in international interfaith conferences and received the 'Hindu of the Year award in 1991 Yogini Sri Chandra Kali Prasad Mataji is the spiritual leader of the Sri Kali Gardens Ashram and successor to Sri Babuji Maharaj, founder of the ashram. Mataji is also head of numerous humanitarian and development programs and is an exponent of interreligious harmony. His Holiness Sri Chinna Jeeyar Swamiji was educated in the ancient Vedic tradition, learning directly from the Gurus from a young age. Dedicated to the principle of service to all beings as service to God, Sri Jeeyar Swamiji is involved in numerous charitable enterprises in a wide variety of fields including health services, education, disaster relief and veterinary medicine. He is active in the cause of world peace and has given special attention to the youth of the world Sevadevi Glover is a member of the Australian Association of Yoga in Daily Life, a nonprofit, humanitarian organisation offering a comprehensive master system of classical yoga postures, Pranayama, relaxation and meditation. Sevadevi has been a Senior Yoga Teacher for 12 years. In 2005 she became a Founding Mernber of Ayurveda Yoga Australia (AYA). The AYA has hosted two International Conferences in Sydney to spread the wisdom and knowledge of the sister sciences of ayurveda and yoga,
international perspective to the discussion. Other religious traditions may have an interest in this topic because Christians have partially achieved unity in recent decades. Dr Max Stephens is senior research fellow in Mathematics and Mathematics Education at the University of Melbourne and an Adjunct Professor of Education at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and at Australian Catholic University. He is a member, and currently chairperson, of the Faith and Order Commission of the Victorian Council of Churches. Stephens has been a member of the Ecumenical and Inter-faith Commission of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne Commission almost continuously since the 1970s. He is active in interchurch activities in his local area of Kensington and as a member of the pastoral council of his parish of Holy Rosary Kaye Reid is a Churches of Christ lay leader and a member of the Faith and Order Commission of the Victorian Council of Churches. She holds a Master's degree in theology. She is active in ministry and service among young people and in forming a Christian response to the challenges of caring for the environment. She believes that Christian churches have to frame a united response to today's problems in terms of respect for God's enduring love for and sustaining presence in the created order. Fr David Patterson is an Anglican parish priest in Burnley, Richmond and a member of the Faith and Order Commission of the Victorian Council of Churches. Both during his time as a teacher and since becoming a priest, he has had an ongoing interest in ecumenical matters. He has followed closely national and international dialogues between the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches and is an expert on bilateral agreements between the Anglican Church in Australia and other Christian churches Maureen Postma is a Uniting Church member and former General Secrelary of the Victorian Council of Churches. She is a member of the Board of Management of the Parliament of the World's Religions. Melbourne 2009, and has had leadership roles in the National Office of Christian World Service and in Caritas Australia. She has also been President of the Jewish Christian-Muslim Association of Victoria, Rev Dr S Wesley Ariarajah is a Methodist minister from Sri Lanka. He led the World Council of Churches (WCC) Interfaith Dialogue for over ten years and later served as the Deputy General Secretary of the WCC. He is currently Professor of Ecumenical Theology at Drew University School of Theology in Madison, NJ. He has given lectures, conducted seminars, and led conferences in many parts of the world.
Restoring Peace and Fostering Dialogue within Religious Traditions: The Experience of Christian Ecumenism in Australia and Beyond Max Stephens Kaye Reid Fr David Patterson Maureen Postma S Wesley Ariarajah Room 203 Over the past century, the many Christian churches have set aside their animosities and embarked on the road to unity to be in accord with Christ's saying 'May they be one'. This panel, organised by the Victorian Council of Churches Faith and Order Committee, will discuss the progress that has been made and the progress that still needs to be made to achieve full and visible unity. Speakers will focus on barriers to the achievement of the goal as well as recent developments, such as the Pope's offer to Anglo-Catholics. Professor Ariarajah will bring an
Sharing Wisdom - Fostering Peace: A Workshop For the Interreligious Panel Maria Reis Habito, Moderator Rabbi Dr Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Moderator Room 204 Interactive Workshop This workshop will introduce educational resources on Sharing Wisdom, Fostering Peace that were developed by a think tank of the Elijah Interfaith Institute (www.elijah-interfaith.org) in preparation for the Third Meeting of the Elijah Board of World Religious Leaders in 2007. The resources on Wisdom and on Forgiveness cover the perspectives of the three Abrahamic traditions, as well as the Buddhist, Hindu and Sikh traditions. They can be used for college-level courses or Interfaith settings. Participants in the workshop will consider how, through sharing the wisdom found in our religious traditions, we can collectively grow to address the multiple challenges posed to us as people of faith in the 21st century global society. We will start our discussions from the basic question: What is wisdom? Why share Wisdom? How do we share wisdom responsibly? Which particular wisdom teaching
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