ZERI Foundation
Systems Thinking to address Sustainable Development Issues
ZERI (Zero Emissions Research & Initiatives) is an international network of individuals working to apply systems thinking and ecological knowledge to solve the major problems of the modern time. This redefines the way we approach economics, industry, business, education and farming and offers hope for reversing entrenched global problems.
GROUP DETAILS
Created: Nov 21, 2007
Updated: Nov 22, 2009
Membership: Open
Semi-Private
Parliament of the World's Religions 2009
Event Info Edit
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Network [Add] · [List] · [Visualize]
     |
About [Edit]
Over seven days, delegates will choose from over 450 activities, including daily morning observances of many traditions, intrareligious and interreligious programs, models of engagement, symposia, performances, open space dialogue and exhibits. A Parliament is a place to come together to listen and commit. The entire program will evolve through 2008 as a result of interaction with religious and spiritual communities, as well as civic and corporate groups across Melbourne and Australia.
Key Topics at the 2009 Parliament
Working towards a more just, peaceful and sustainable future lies at the heart of aspirations of people everywhere. Emerging at this moment in history is a growing and shared recognition that "we are all in this together." The deciding factor in our future will have to do with those things which will make us an Earth community, and for which we must take common responsibility.
The impetus to come to grips with this common responsibility for fostering an Earth community comes from two places: the practical and the spiritual. The following are among the most pressing challenges facing us that can only be addressed through these two inseparable dimensions. Each of these categories are the featured topics for the 2009 Parliament event in Melbourne, Australia.
| Healing the Earth with Care and Concern | The Melbourne Parliament will draw forth the sacred nature of the environment from all religious and spiritual traditions, led by the Indigenous peoples of the earth. It will also showcase the partnership between communities and other guiding institutions in pursuing practical approaches for reversing climate change and its effects. |
| Reconciling with the Indigenous Peoples | The Parliament offers the opportunity to continue with the reconciliation process that the Australian government began by apologizing to indigenous people for the wrongs committed against them. Using this Australian context, the Parliament will provide an opportunity for indigenous peoples around the world to voice their own concerns and aspirations. |
| Overcoming Poverty in a Patriarchal World | The Parliament provides the occasion to focus on the struggle against dire poverty across the world with the aim of making poverty history. It will be designed to strengthen religious communities in their struggle against poverty, to provide practical suggestions in the fight against poverty and for the protection of families. |
| Creating Social Cohesion in Village and City | Increasingly in cities across the developed world, one's neighbors are 'other' with different cultural, linguistic and religious backgrounds who wish to maintain the uniqueness and integrity of their identity. This leads to the formation of transnational communities in touch with their home society and the other parts of their diaspora. The Parliament will offer the opportunity to discuss social cohesion in the context of migration movements, transnational communities and the formation of multicultural societies and provide solutions and strategies from the grassroots to governments. |
| Sharing Wisdom in Search for Inner Peace | The Parliament presents an opportunity for faith traditions to share their spiritualities to others, both of and not of their tradition. It will highlight how spiritual frameworks provide a source of meaning to countless individuals; it will show how spirituality provides an anchor in a constantly changing world, an asset in time of personal and collective crisis and a source of personal and collective identity. |
| Securing Food and Water for All People | As the world faces challenges of consumption and sustainability, access to food and water for all people has become a pressing concern. The Parliament offers a context for religious and spiritual communities to better understand this growing crisis and to collaborate in exploring concrete possibilities for how to provide these basic necessities to everyone throughout the world. |
| Building Peace in Pursuit of Justice | Religious and spiritual communities can collaborate with one another and other guiding institutions to work to reverse the conditions of injustice and poverty that provide breeding grounds for extremism. Through encounter, dialogue and cooperative efforts, the Parliament will provide the opportunity to build the bonds of trust, cooperation, and understanding that it takes to overcome stereotypes and mutual misunderstanding. |
Comments (1 - 2 of 2)
|
|
|
Hey, guys!!!
Many happy returns for 2009! just confirming interest and attendance for the Dec 2009 in advance - smile...by God's grace!
|
One should read this as this is an inspiring event for peacemaker with a religious faith as their core. I hope buddhist especially from Tibetan Karma Kagyu tradition (17th Gyalwang Karmapa) would join and report to us.