Source: news.bbc.co.uk
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, December 8, 2009: What happens when an imam, a priest and a rabbi get into a lift together? It may sound like a joke, but it is an everyday occurrence at the world’s largest inter-faith gathering – and such unexpected encounters are positively encouraged.
The Parliament of the World’s Religions has brought together representatives from 80 nationalities and more than 220 faith traditions for seven days of debate and dialogue. The organzsers hope that chance meetings in lifts, along with attendance at the 600 different formal meetings, will lead to new partnerships between religious groups.
This is only the fifth such “parliament” to take place. A groundbreaking meeting between religious leaders from different parts of the world happened in Chicago in 1893. One hundred years later, a group of inter-faith practitioners decided to hold another such meeting, and they have happened almost every five years since then.
The emphasis is on building relationships and giving members of each faith the opportunity to better understand several others. There are no formal debates or votes, but organizers say that any commitments made by members of a particular community are formally recorded.
A key area of debate and dialogue has been around environmental issues. Indigenous leaders from northern Canada have highlighted how the effects of climate changes are already being felt in their communities. Rev Dirk Ficca, director of the parliament, says that delegates are appealing to climate negotiators at the UN summit in Copenhagen to ask this question of themselves: “Is the earth sacred enough to make those hard, courageous short-term decisions that will have implications for decades to come?
Concerns have been also raised about whether religious perspectives are taken seriously, particularly by secular governments in the West. Prominent American rabbi David Saperstein told delegates that religious leaders must work hard to make their voice heard, particularly concerning the moral questions facing the world. “We are the first generation that produces enough food to feed every human being on earth. Our failure to do so now is a failure of moral vision and political will. In a world in which you can do everything, what you should do – the moral question – is the fundamental challenge facing humanity. And on that question, the religious communities have urgent, profound, indispensable wisdom to offer” he said.
The parliament certainly helps build relationships across religious traditions – and that alone may offer some hope for fewer religious divisions in future.