Parliament of Worlds Religion 2009 Melbourne Australia

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

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Welcome from Rev. Dr William E. Lesher, Chair, Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions
Can the religious and spiritual communities of the world, working together, help to find solutions to the momentous problems that challenge the human community today? Can a renewed sense of the sacredness of the natural world motivate masses of people to adopt ways of living that will heal the earth? Can a recovery of the message of compassion and a commitment to the inestimable value of every life form break through all that prevents us from making poverty history? Can the religions help to build a new world ethos in which families, neighbours, communities and nations hear each other, respect each other and care for each other? Our response to these questions will be the measure by which this Parliament of the World's Religions will be judged. Will we sense the urgency of this time? Will we be able, in the week ahead to address the critical issues of today, deeply and responsibly? Most of all, will we find within ourselves and within our religious and spiritual traditions the wisdom and direction
that will send us away from Melbourne committed to action and imbrued with hope? This fifth Parliament of the World's Religions in Melbourne, Australia convenes on the threshold of the second decade of the twenty-first century. Ten years ago the Parliament met in Cape Town, South Africa around the hopeful theme, "A New Day is Dawning." By the time of the fourth Parliament in Barcelona, Spain it was clear that the "Pathways to Peace" that we gathered to explore would be more difficult to navigate then had been anticipated. Now, five years later, international terrorism, wars, persistent poverty, hunger and disease, a global economic downturn, political polarisation and the harbinger of an impending environmental crisis are converging to threaten the very future of the human community. In the last decade, the world's religions have taken on a new prominence. The values and ethical norms that mark the great faith traditions are being explored as a source of renewal and hope. The fledgling interreligious movement has grown stronger. Inter religious dialogue, first an activity for scholars and religious leaders, has become an action in many local communities of faith. Religious and spiritual communities working together for the common good is no longer an unusual phenomenon. May this fifth Parliament be a place where we envision an alternative interreligious world, where differences are bridged and embraced, where we do truly hear each other and from which we return home to heal the earth around us.
Welcome from Prof. Rev. Gary D. Bouma, Chair, Board of Management, Parliament of the World's Religions
Welcome to the Parliament of the World's Religions 2009 in Melbourne. You are invited to experience an amazing convergence of people from widely diverse backgrounds and deeply held religious and spiritual convictions and practices coming together to Make a World of Difference. The challenges we face together are huge. Addressing them requires an energy that is greater than each and all of us and a wisdom more profound than the peaceful stirrings of compassion and peace deep within each of us. PWR 2009 respects your unique contribution to human diversity. We recognise it as the source of strong motivations and creative responses to human and environmental problems. By contributing your views. insights and challenges you will enable others to appreciate the way your religious and spiritual being works. As we share our hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, dreams and suggestions each of us will become more articulate about our own situations and approaches as well as becoming more knowledgeable about those of others. Ignorance and fear will be reduced and will be replaced by mutual understanding and respect.
Gary D. Bouma Chair BOM PWR 2009 Inc.
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