from Huffington Post

People and groups of faith inspired by the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York City are organizing events in NYC’s “Liberty Plaza” and around the country. We’ve compiled a list of some of these upcoming protests. We would love to add other cities! Please leave all faith-related happenings in the comments, or tweet us @HuffPostRelig so we can add to the list.

In many of the Occupy cities, there are “protest chaplains.” In New York they identify themselves with blue ribbons. In Boston they have white cloaks or are in the Inter/No/Faith tent. Check out theOccupy Boston Faith and Spirituality page.

Click here to read more

On Saturday, June 18, 2011, individuals and groups all over the world gathered at the kinds of places most people tend to avoid: clear-cut forests, polluted inner-city rivers, Superfund sites, an autobahn in Switzerland, and the site of rare and endangered trees in Bolivia. The people who participated in the Global Earth Exchange didn’t go to these sites to protest. They weren’t even there to clean up the mess.

Instead they gathered to tell their personal stories about what these places meant to them, to spend reflective time there, and to make an “act of beauty” out of found materials, usually a bird, symbol of Radical Joy for Hard Times, the non-profit organization that sponsored the event.

According to Trebbe Johnson, founder and executive director of Radical Joy for Hard Times, “People love the natural places in their communities. When those places are destroyed, they feel sorrow, anger, guilt. The relationship doesn’t end just because the place has changed, even if it’s changed drastically. By reconnecting to these wounded places they affirm their love of the wild places in their communities and empower themselves to act in positive ways to take care of these places.” The organization, which was founded in 2009, is headquartered in Thompson, PA with a network that is worldwide.

The Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht, who coined the term “solastalgia,” meaning “the pain experienced when there is recognition that the place where one resides and that one loves is under immediate assault,” joined the Global Earth Exchange at a dying forest in Jarrahdale, Perth, Australia. Students and faculty of Naropa University gathered at Valmont Coal Plant in Boulder, Colorado, and a native of Tucson tried to make peace with the housing developments that are spreading over the desert wilderness she used to hike in.  Stories and photos can be found on the Radical Joy for Hard Times website.

by Brendan Smialowski from the New York Times

In this short article, Smialowski presents photos and interviews exploring a new trend amongst Hindu immigrants to the United States.  His article reveals that many Hindu immigrants are sending their American children to summer camp to maintain their religious identities.

Click here to view the entire slideshow

Karen Armstrong spoke this past month at a special gathering hosted by the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions in Palo Alto, California. The celebrated author and founder of the Charter for Compassion addressed the ethos of compassion and the work of the Charter.

“Compassion is not just an attitude of sloppy benevolence, it requires practical action. It requires a sense of responsibility,” said Armstrong. “It’s not an impratical dream. It’s a necessity for our survival. We have to treat people, whoever they are, with respect.”

Armstrong also lifted up the collaborative nature of the work of the Charter for Compassion, and highlighted the partnership between the Charter and CPWR, particularly the integration of the Charter with the work of the Council’s Partner Cities Network

“This is the task of our time…to make the compassionate voice of religion, spirituality, morality a clear, luminous, and dynamic force in our troubled world.”

The following is a brief reflection with photos from Parliament participants from Kauai’s Hindu Monastery, Hawaii.

http://himalayanacademy.com/blog/taka/2010/01/24/looking-back-at-the-melbourne-parliament/

We are grateful to our friends at GNNSJ for creating a stunning presentation of still photogaphy from the Parliament.  Relive the Parliament in five minutes!  Click Here to watch the video.

Delegates of the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne, Australia:

This is you!

To all sponsors, speakers, performers, organizers and delegates, we offer the heartfelt thanks of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions and all of our encouragement as you go forward to make a world of difference.

In the meantime, we hope to see you on PeaceNext, our official social network.

Please continue to visit our website, http://parliamentofreligions.org, for video, text, and photographic documentation of our Melbourne Parliament and details on developments to come!

For a week now, PeaceNext’s over 500 members have already been commenting, posting, organizing and connecting with each other.

A few of the highlights include:

• Groups: 29 Groups from the Portland-Vancouver Friends of the Parliament to the Food, Water and Climate Action Group.
• Blogs: Olivia Watts’ open-armed welcome to Melbourne.
• Blogs: Beth Blissman’s reunion with a fellow Oberlin alum.
• Photos: 400 member-uploaded photos, most of the Parliament-in-progress.
• Videos: Almost 60 videos, many in webcast format, providing connection and eyewitness accounts of the Parliament in progress.
• Above all our 586 members, many of whom have also added their location to our interactive map.

And this is just the beginning.  To connect and experience the digital voice of the interreligious movement, click here.

Social Networks have become a major phenomenon this decade, picking up hundreds of millions of users around the world.  During the development of the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne, Australia, our planning Council has made use of a variety of social networks to spread the word about the importance of interreligious work.  Here’s how you can connect up:

• If you only join one online network, it should be PeaceNext.  Specially built for the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions, PeaceNext is the premiere online site for the interreligious movement.  We’ve added over 500 members in the last week!  To join up for free, click here.
• There are also two Facebook entities associated with the Parliament.  Our Facebook Group was created specifically for the Melbourne Parliament and already includes more than 3500 members sharing photos, videos, conversation and more.  We also maintain a Facebook Fan Page for the Council with over 1000 members and access to our deep archives of photos and videos from prior events.  We have also recently created a Myspace Group.
• Last but not least, we invite you to Follow PWR2009 on Twitter for timely, spontaneous, and bite-sized updates on all things interreligious.

We’ve received some wonderful photos from Pre-Parliament Events recently held in Vancouver and Monterrey.

To see pictures from Vancouver, click here.

To see pictures from Monterrey, click here.

Many of our other Pre-Parliament Events have been documented with photos, video and more.  To see a list of past Pre-Parliament Events, click here. If you want to find out what events will be happening in the future near you, click here.