World Religions Get Down to Earth

by Trebbe Johnson

“Sensually, it was a panoply of colorful raiment, ceremonies, liturgies, and languages from around the world.  Spiritually, the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions, held December 3-9 in Melbourne, Australia, had the feeling of a quest, or rather thousands of individual quests pursued by people who came together not just to espouse their own beliefs but to explore together how to solve some of the world’s most grievous problems.  “Making a World of Difference: Hearing Each Other, Healing the Earth” was the theme of this gathering held in the soaring, light-filled Melbourne Convention Center on the bank of the Yarra River, int he ancestral homeland of the aboriginal Wurundjeri people.  For a week, six thousand participants from eighty countries, representing religious and spiritual traditions old and new, shared one another’s worship services; attended 662 talks, panel discussions, and films; and exchanged ideas, prayers, and email addresses.

The first Parliament of World Religions took place in Chicago in 1893, the second not until one hundred years later, again in the Windy City.  Cape Town, Barcelona, and now Melbourne have hosted subsequent gatherings.  Since the beginning, the concept of what the parliament has to offer, and to whom, has changed radically.”

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Trebbe Johnson is the founder and director of Radical Joy for Hard Times, a non-profit organization devoted to finding and making beauty in wounded places. She writes frequently on the relationship of myth, nature, and spirit and is the author of The World Is a Waiting Lover: Desire and the Quest for the Beloved. She lives in rural Pennsylvania.

Rabbi David Saperstein.  Dr Sakena Yacoobi.  The Rev Dr William Lesher.  These the the names that Paul Raushenbush of the Huffington Post invokes as he sets forth a focused definition of religious pluralism and argues strenuously in support of the Parliament’s vision.

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The Age has written an article on the role of religious organizations in the war on poverty, featuring many speakers from the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions.  Prof. Katherine Marshall of the Berkley Center for Religion speaks powerfully of the opportunity for good work among the religious of the world: “Poverty is not inevitable, and it is therefore immoral to accept it.”  Other speakers cited in the article include World Vision Australia Chief Executive Tim Costello, Rev. Jim Wallis and Rabbi David Saperstein.

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