Opening Night

Opening Night

Just returned from the opening plenary of the Parliament. What an experience!! The convention hall was packed – at least 4000 people, probably more. Walking through the convention center is like a trip through the “Who’s Who” of world religions. I passed Dr. Arvind Sharma (Hindu scholar of world reknown), Jim Wallis from Sojourner’s, Dr. Paul Knitter from Union (my own personal theological hero!). I also ran into Dr. Shafiq who had just arrived from Rochester and then found Lynne and Mike Boucher from Nazareth College with whom I sat through the plenary.

The opening plenary featured a number of keynote speakers and local dignitaries and politicians. All of them spoke of the importance of interfaith dialogue and cooperation on all the issues that face the global community, from poverty, to justice for those living under oppression, to climate change. This parliament is focusing heavily on the issue of climate change and global warming and it is fascinating to see the diversity of offerings that are available on how people of different religious traditions are coming together in communities the world over to work for a sustainable environment.

The most exciting and delightful part of the opening plenary was the “blessings” that were said and sung and chanted from many different world religions traditions. We heard blessings from the Zorastrian tradition, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Shinto, Aboriginal, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Bahai traditions. A number of the blessings were accompanied by dance. During each blessing, an artist was crafting a sand “painting” of some symbol that represents the religious tradition that was offering the blessing. It was truly spectacular and immensely colorful and rich. There is nothing quite like a gathering of such diverse religious traditions in one place – the color and sound and beauty of the religious diversity of the world is truly magnificent. I’m posting some photos of the opening blessings just to give you a flavor.

Two of the keynote speeches were particularly engaging. One was by Dr. Sakena Yacoobi, a Muslim woman from Afghanistan who founded 80 underground schools for girls in the 1990s and who continues to work to empower women in that war torn country. She spoke quite bluntly about the terrible conditions under which the people of Afghanistan are currently living. Life is “jihad” she said, meaning life is a “struggle.” She expressed her firm belief that people of faith must be prime movers in any and all efforts to bring peace in her country (and elsewhere in the world) and also gave witness to the strength her own faith gives her to continue the struggle for survival in a country torn apart by war and government corruption and violence. Her speech was truly riveting and I found myself wondering if Obama’s pledge to send 30,000 more American troops into Afghanistan will help or hurt that troubled land.

His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar from India gave a very moving talk based on his deep commitment to “ahimsa” or non-violence. He used the metaphor of a symphony or choir, where every member is intent upon doing their own part very well, and each member has a different role to play in the sound that is ultimately produced, but all are able to make the beautiful music because they are intent upon watching the conductor and doing what the conductor wants to have done. He sees all the world religions as instruments in an orchestra or voices in a choir, all working together to make a beautiful sound by concentrating on what the conductor, i.e. “the Divine reality” calls us to do.

While the opening plenary was wonderful, it also ran overtime by 75 minutes, so it is now very late and I am exhausted. I’m not completely adjusted to the time change yet and need to get on to bed if I am to be up and back at the Parliament for morning worship. I’ve decided that each morning I will attend worship in a different world religious tradition. Tomorrow I begin with the Jain tradition. Until then, good night.