WUNRN
Parliament of the
World's Religions
December 3-9, 2009 -
Melbourne, Australia
Registration: http://www.parliamentofreligions.org/index.cfm?n=26&sn=2
VISA application deadline is 30 Sept 2009
for international participants.
Contact: info@parliamentofreligions.org
Our Mission
The Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions was created to cultivate harmony among the world's religious and spiritual communities and foster their engagement with the world and its guiding institutions in order to achieve a just, peaceful and sustainable world.
To accomplish this, we invite individuals and communities who are equally invested in attaining this goal.
Our Vision
The vision of the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions is of a just, peaceful and sustainable world in which:
- Religious
and spiritual communities live in harmony and contribute to a better world
from their riches of wisdom and compassion
- Religious
and cultural fears and hatreds are replaced with understanding and respect
- People
everywhere come to know and care for their neighbors
- The
richness of human and religious diversity is woven into the fabric of
communal, civil, societal and global life
- The
world's most powerful and influential institutions move beyond narrow
self-interest to realize common good
- The
Earth and all life are cherished, protected, healed and restored
- All
people commit to living out their highest values and aspirations.
Our Approach
The Council for a
Parliament of the World's Religions seeks to promote interreligious harmony,
rather than unity. The problem with seeking unity among religions is the
risk of loss of the unique and precious character of each individual religious
and spiritual tradition; this understanding is key to our framework.
Interreligious harmony, on the other hand, is an attainable and highly
desirable goal. Such an approach respects, and is enriched by, the
particularities of each tradition. Moreover, within each tradition are the
resources (philosophical, theological and spiritual teachings and perspectives)
that enable each to enter into respectful, appreciative and cooperative
relationships with persons and communities of other traditions.
Our Opportunity
We live in a world of
difference. Yet, we are interdependent. Nowhere is learning to live with
difference more important than religion.
Too often, religion is misused as an instrument for division and injustice,
betraying the very ideals and teachings that lie at the heart of each of the
world's great traditions. At the same time, religious and spiritual traditions
shape the lives of billions in wise and wonderful ways. They gather people in
communities of shared beliefs and practices. When these diverse communities
work in harmony for the common good, there is hope that the world can be
transformed.
Over the years, the Council has initiated dialogues and nurtured relationships
among people of difference. In doing so the Council has provided a framework
for expressing many visions of a just,
peaceful and sustainable future. In the process, religious and spiritual
communities have discovered a shared commitment to ethical principles.
This shared commitment has opened the way for a new era of cooperative action
among the world's religious and spiritual communities as well as civil and
political societies. The well-being of the Earth and all life depends on this
collaboration.
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