wfn.org | PARLIAMENT OF WORLD'S RELIGIONS TO CONVENE IN SOUTH AFRICA

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@wfn.org>]

Aug. 4, 1999
Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions
John Dart, 818 363 3984, jdartnews@aol.com
Mim Neal, 312 629 2990, mimneal@cpwr.org
http://www.cpwr.org

The end-of-the-millennium Parliament of the World's Religions, signaling a
new era of interreligious encounter and cooperation, could not meet in a
more meaningful place than South Africa, say organizers of the December
gathering.
         The political-moral struggle to end apartheid, culminating in free
elections in 1994, and that nation's ongoing effort toward rights and
dignity for all citizens already inspires the global interfaith movement,
said Rev. Dirk Ficca, executive director of the Council for a Parliament of
the World's Religions (CPWR) based in Chicago.
In 1993, the Parliament - actually a non-legislative, educational and
celebratory international gathering across creedal, racial and national
lines  - drew some 8,000 people to Chicago.  That event recalled an
historic interfaith meeting 100 years before in the same city.  The success
of the 1993 event led to a commitment to hold such international gatherings
every five years, beginning in 1999 with the Dec. 1 - 8 Parliament in Cape
Town.
         Parliament leaders are hoping for a turnout of 6,000 - 8,000 people
- from eminent religious figures, such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, to
ordinary adherents, in keeping with the grassroots dynamics of
interreligious movements.
  "Anyone can register for the gathering," Ficca said.  "There are no
official delegates as such.  People will be coming from churches, temples,
synagogues, mosques, ashrams, gurdwaras and other spiritual groups."
Recently back from another planning trip to South Africa, Ficca and Jim
Kenney, CPWR's director of the International Interreligious Initiative,
said they were encouraged by continuing civic and religious backing in that
country for the eight-day Parliament.
"We have extremely solid support from virtually every religious community,"
Kenney said.  For example, he added, the five religious leaders who
delivered blessings from their respective traditions at the June 16
inauguration of President Thabo Mbeki, the elected successor of Nelson
Mandela, have strongly endorsed the Parliament.
Religious groups were drawn together by the struggle against apartheid,
noted Kenney.  "But since the 1994 elections, there has been a substantial
decrease in interreligious cooperation.  For that reason, the Parliament
has generated a great deal of interest."
Ficca thinks many participants will identify with principles underlying the
work of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.  Headed by
Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the commission investigated human rights
violations from 1960 to 1994.  "Attempts to be entirely truthful about what
has happened in the past can lead to forgiveness and reconciliation," said
Ficca.

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Parliament of the World's Religions
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An assembly of religious and spiritual leaders, activists, and scholars
will meet as part of the Parliament.  Members will discuss implementation
of "A Call to Our Guiding Institutions," the key event document.  The Call,
to be issued sometime this fall, invites governments, business, education,
communications media and scientific leadership, among others, to reassess
and perhaps redefine their roles in seeking "a just, peaceful and
sustainable future."
Because religious bodies must first heed their own advice, "the document
starts with religion," asking that adherents themselves look inward, said
Ficca.  "It calls for religious and spiritual communities to reexamine
forthrightly where they have had a negative impact on the world and where
they had a fruitful effect."
Among the hundreds of religious leaders expected at the Parliament are, in
addition to the Dalai Lama, Dr. Abdullah Omar Nasseef of Saudi Arabia,
president of the World Muslim Congress; Sir Sigmund Sternberg of London,
from the International Conference of Christians and Jews; Maha Ghosananda,
Supreme Patriarch of Cambodia Buddhism; Master Hsying Yun of Taiwan,
founder of the Fo Kuang Shan Buddhist Order; Christian theologian Hans Küng
of Germany, principal author of the 1993 Parliament document, "Towards a
Global Ethic:  An Initial Declaration;" renowned Hindu leader Swami
Chidananda of India, and feminist theologian Chung Hyung Kyung of South
Korea.
U.S.-based religious scholars and leaders planning to attend include world
religions expert Huston Smith of California; the Very Rev. James Parks
Morton, dean emeritus of the (Episcopal) Cathedral of St. John the Divine
and president of the Interfaith Center of New York; Imam W. D. Mohammed of
Chicago, prominent American Muslim leader; Catholic theologian Rosemary
Radford Reuther of Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston,
Illinois; and Satguru Sivaya Subranumiyaswami of Hawaii, publisher of
Hinduism Today magazine.
At the December Parliament, numerous examples of "gifts of service" will be
cited - creative projects of both religious and secular groups that
demonstrate generosity, compassion, good will and hospitality-in hopes of
inspiring others to emulate them.
Most of the registrants in Cape Town-a popular tourist destination-are
expected to come from other continents, but as many as one third of the
Parliament attendees will be Africans, especially from the host country,
Kenney said.
  "Although it is an international event," Kenney said, "a very strong South
African flavor will be evident from the music, dance and spiritual
traditions, as well as the theological and public issues that face that
nation and the rest of Africa."
In the coming weeks, CPWR will hold several regional conferences in North
America to introduce potential participants to the Parliament.  They are
currently scheduled for Aug. 7 in the San Francisco Bay area for various
September dates in Louisville, Kentucky; New York City; and Vancouver,
British Columbia.