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.”

Click here to download the full article (pdf)

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.

Australian newspaper The Age has published an editorial arguing for a robust international response to climate change from the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark.  The piece references a 60-meter-long scroll signed by delegates from the Parliament of the World’s Religions.  The scroll will be sent to support efforts in Copenhagen.  Climate change is a subject of central importance at this year’s Parliament as reflected by the theme of Healing the Earth with Care and Concern.

The end of the Parliament of the World’s Religions will overlap with the beginning of the Climate Change Conference.

To read the full editorial, click here.

As we enter into the final days and hours before the Parliament of Religions in Melbourne, Australia, we would like to take some time to reflect on the work ahead.  The 2009 Parliament will be ripe with promise and we can best engage this opportunity by considering worthy responses to the challenges of the world today. We invite you to view this series of eight public service announcements in preparation for your Parliament experience.

Our fourth announcement invokes the perspective of the indigenous peoples of the world in response to global environmental crises. As Chief Oren Lyons argues here, “all indigenous nations have great respect for nature.” The earth is our collective heritage and responsibility. Thus the announcement references two of the subthemes of the Melbourne Parliament:

Indigenous People

and

Healing the Earth with Care and Concern

Please listen and consider the words of leaders such as Uncle Bob Randall of the Yankunytjatjara People of Australia, Chief Oren Lyons of the Onondaga Nation, Canada’s Dr. David Suzuki and Wangari Maathai of Kenya’s Agikuyan people.