Melbourne’s newly launched Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre will host the largest and most diverse multifaith gathering of religious and spiritual leaders in the world this year from 3-9 December.
The event, held by the Parliament of the World’s Religions, provides an opportunity for Melbourne to demonstrate its commitment to diversity, peace, sustainability and reconciliation, on a truly international stage.
It will also inject more than $75 million into the Victorian economy.
Chair of the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions, Professor Gary Bouma, said thousands of guests from 80 countries will attend, making this the largest convention in Australia this year.
“The 2009 Parliament will turn worldwide attention to Melbourne as a destination city with international appeal, following past Parliaments in Barcelona (2004), Cape Town (1999) and Chicago (1993)”, Mr Bouma said.
“Melbourne is an ideal place to hold the largest interreligious gathering because of its cultural and religious diversity and social cohesion.
This Parliament will provide opportunity for the world’s religious and spiritual communities and their leaders to discuss and explore peace, diversity and sustainability in the context of interreligious understanding and cooperation.
And this important discussion will showcase the new Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, the centrepiece of the new $1.4 billion precinct along the Yarra.”
The theme for this year’s Parliament is “Make a World of Difference: Hearing Each Other, Healing the Earth”. Over 500 programs will feature lectures, dialogues, workshops, symposia, performances and exhibits, with participation and delivery by renowned spiritual, religious, civil, academic and political leaders from Australia and overseas.
The Parliament of the World’s Religions 2009 is supported by the State Government of Victoria, the Commonwealth Government of Australia and the City of Melbourne, as well as individual religious and corporate donors.
The Parliament is of special interest to Sts. Peter and Paul Parish. It gathers in a new, flash Convention Centre on the South side of the Yarra River and, therefore, under the pastoral and missionary care of our parish.
Secondly, I/we have been invited to run a workshop at the Parliament about gospel social activism radiating from our 150 years old parish.
I’ll say no more. We’re entering a short, sharp period of personal and collective soul searching called Advent.
No need to be coy anymore about religious practices and seasons. Google and Wikipedia put religion as close as the nearest keyboard. John Safran rabbits on endlessly about the many splendored and flawed facets of religion.
So, Advent, not a season revealed by God but a spiritual exercise designed by monks, offers 4 weeks of intensive discipline of mind and hearts so that Christmas doesn’t turn toxic.
I’d like to get Cristo to wrap our imposing church in a gigantic techno friendly bright red and white bow.
The message would be that this Parish and all who sail in her want to be a Christmas gift to the local and global neighbourhood.
RJM
Well said Ann
Ramakrishna’s most beloved disciple Swami Vivekananda spoke some eloquent words in his final address to the first parliament of world religions:
If the Parliament of Religions has shown anything to the world, it is this: It has proved to the world that holiness, purity and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character. In the face of this evidence, if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart, and point out to him that upon the banner of every religion will soon be written in spite of resistance: “Help and not fight,” “Assimilation and not Destruction,” “Harmony and Peace and not Dissension.”
A great editorial today …let us hope that all who read it respond in a positive, optimistic way and give up the negativity, anger and divisiveness that has characterised so many comments on this site over the last few months. All of us, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu Sikh and Buddhist, are following the ‘many paths’ which lead to the one eternal goal. Let us forget the petty squabbles and resentments that follow from our flawed human nature and keep our eye on that goal. In secular society today, and in much of the media, there is a growing hostility to all forms of religious faith and a push to marginalise faith and yes, some adherents of all major faiths don’t help matters by being intolerant, judgmental and exclusive…BUT if we turn on each other, then the real enemies of faith – all faiths – can just sit back and laugh!