Pluralism in action!

I’m heading to Melbourne, Australia today, to arrive in time for the week-long Parliament of the World’s Religions! From December 3 – 9, more than 10,000 participants from 80-plus countries are expected to convene for the world’s largest interreligious gathering.

I’m one of many hundreds of participants who will make a presentation in support of the theme, “Make a world of difference: hearing each other, healing the earth.” I’m also going to participate in an off-site interfaith panel focused on the main theme but available to those not registered for the actual Parliament.  I plan to tweet a favorite aha (http://twitter.com/ShirleyPaulson) moment from each of the sessions I attend, and I’ll post a blog entry here at spiritualityandchristianity.com daily. I hope you’ll catch some of the spirit, flavor, feelings, and spiritual sense of the reasons we need such a gathering of world religions.

I believe in religious pluralism. It means that people of all faiths need each other. We can’t possibly live in harmony with others without understanding something of their religious and spiritual heritage. We also can’t survive without learning our own religious traditions well enough to explain why they are a blessing to all humanity.

I first caught the spirit of religious pluralism when I attended the resurrection of the Parliament in Chicago in 1993, a century after the first truly global dialogue of faith took place, also in Chicago, in 1893.  The plan emerged at that time (1993) to reconvene as a conference every five years at various places around the world. I didn’t make it to Cape Town in 1999 or Barcelona  in 2004, but it’s great to have a chance to get to Melbourne. Stay tuned.

So I hope you’ll join me here and on Twitter — http://twitter.com/shirleypaulson