Event aims to promote interfaith harmony

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 03/11/2018 (2539 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

All eyes were on Canada last month when it became only the second country in the world to legalize marijuana.

Now people of faith in this country are hoping it will be in world news again this week, but for a different reason — a spiritual high.

The Parliament of the World’s Religions is meeting in Toronto — the event began on Nov. 1 and lasts until Nov. 7 — to promote interfaith harmony among the world’s religious and spiritual communities, and to encourage them as they work to achieve a more just, peaceful and sustainable world.

The first parliament was held in Chicago in 1893. After a 100-year hiatus, it was held again in Chicago in 1993, followed by Cape Town (1999), Barcelona (2004), Melbourne (2009) and Salt Lake City (2015).

The theme of the 2018 parliament is The Promise of Inclusion, the Power of Love: Pursuing Global Understanding, Reconciliation and Change. About 8,000 people from 80 countries are expected to attend.

Registrants will be able to choose from more than 500 addresses, seminars and programs on tracks about the role and dignity of women in religion; countering war, hate and violence; climate change; Indigenous Peoples; youth; and working to achieve a more just, peaceful and sustainable world.

The parliament will also host the inaugural Interfaith Family Festival, in partnership with web-based program Spiritual Playdate, to help children, parents and others explore spirituality through interactive games and apps, theatre, music, and arts and crafts.

For Karen Hamilton, co-chair of the parliament’s hosting committee and former general secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches, the event is an opportunity to showcase “the richness of the various faith traditions that are growing in this country.”

At the same time, she hopes participants will be encouraged by how people of different faiths co-operate and collaborate in Canada, taking “lessons learned and relationships formed back home, transferring them to different contexts.”

But, she adds, the event will not be a big “pat on the back” for faith.

There are things that have been done in the name of religion, she says, that are “absolutely dire and that need to be addressed with a deep sense of repentance.”

This includes things like failing to take climate change seriously, failing to respect women or how religion “has been used to support genocide, wars, persecution and injustice.”

“We need to be open to the painful questions… it’s not just going to be light and fluffy,” she says, adding “we need to keep challenging ourselves, need to keep speaking about our failings as people of faith. That is the mark of a healthy spirituality.”

At the same time, she says the parliament will illustrate the positive contributions people of faith are making in the world.

“The parliament will showcase these realities as well,” she says.

“It will remind the world of the deep participation of religious communities in addressing needs and speaking for justice.”

A special feature of the parliament will be a focus on Indigenous people, with Indigenous people from Canada participating in the opening ceremonies. They will also tend a sacred fire throughout the whole event.

“We want to highlight the vibrancy of Indigenous traditions in Canada,” says Hamilton, adding she hopes it will also “cause people from other countries to reflect on their own Indigenous traditions.”

James Christie, a retired professor from the faculty of theology at the University of Winnipeg, is attending the parliament.

For him, events like this are important as much for their “symbolic value” as for the practical lessons that might be garnered.

“Just being together, just showing up is significant,” he says of how people of many faiths will be gathering in Toronto.

Along with the programs, the informal networking will be important.

“A lot of new ideas can emerge from these informal conversations,” he says.

He agrees with Hamilton that the parliament will also be an opportunity to show the positive contributions religion is making around the world.

“It’s a chance to present an alternative view to the idea that religion only causes conflict, and to counter those who use it as a justification for conflict and war.”

For more information about the parliament, go to parliamentofreligions.org.

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