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…
Source: Press Release MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, December 10, 2009: After seven magnificent days, the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions has officially closed, with a moving ceremony at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. Thousands of people from more than 80 cultures and faiths attended more than 650 programs, with over 1300 world-class speakers and performers, living the mantra Make a…
Source: Asiantribune.com CHENNAI, INDIA, December 2, 2009: The holy deepam was lighted atop the hill of Thiruvannamalai on Tuesday evening. Devotees gathered within and around the precincts of the temple, along with the residents of the town to catch sight of the flame atop the Annamalai hill, cherishing the age old belief that it is a representation of Shiva himself,…
Source: www.hinduismtoday.com Over the last few years, American universities have had to adjust their cafeteria menus to reflect the fact that ten to fifteen percent of their incoming students are vegetarians. Now the US federal prison system is doing the same, perhaps a dubious distinction for the advocates of vegetarianism. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals see an up…
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com CHENNAI, INDIA, November 20, 2009: For Abhishek, a software engineer, this year’s birthday was very special. Sitting in his apartment in Texas, he felt quite at home as he watched a special archana’ being performed in his name at Chennai’s famous Vadapalani Murugan temple, which he has frequented as a boy. It was a “virtual” divine experience for…
Source: blogs.reuters.com December 8, 2009: (By Paul Knitter, Professor of Theology, World Religions and Culture at Union Theological Seminary in New York and Matthew Weiner, Program Director at the Interfaith Center of New York.) In 1893, the Chicago Parliament of World Religions was convened to gather the world’s faiths together for the first time. The organizers had a subversive message…
Source: www.hinduismtoday.com MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, December 9, 2009: The Hindu Declaration on Climate Change adopted yesterday at the Parliament of the World’s Religions is available in PDF form at the link above (also repeated below as a text file). The Declaration is of particular relevance at this moment as the world’s leaders gather for the United Nations Climate Change Conference in…
Source: blogs.abc.net.au MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, December 8, 2009: An unprecedented assembly of Hindu Spiritual Leaders at the PWR has issued a Hindu Declaration on Climate Change. “It is a matter of survival,” says the Declaration; “we cannot continue to destroy nature without also destroying ourselves.” All morning the Hindu Convocation has been meeting, with one seer after another rising to deliver…
Source: www.hinduismtoday.com Mark Twain visited India over a century ago and commented that Varanasi was …older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together.
Source: HPI [SPECIAL HPI ANNOUNCEMENT] MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, December 8, 2009: Melbourne’s Parliament of the World’s Religions is proving to be the most influential of modern times, and the widest ever. Hindus have shown unity and extraordinary leadership releasing today the Hindu Declaration on Climate Change, marking a definitive stance of Hinduism as a religion that is aware of humankind’s role…