“The Promise of Inclusion, the Power of Love: Pursuing Global Understanding, Reconciliation, and Change” – 7th Parliament of the World’s Religions, Toronto, November 2018
“The Promise of Inclusion, the Power of Love: Pursuing Global Understanding, Reconciliation, and Change”
The 7th Parliament of the World’s Religions will be held in Toronto on November 1 to 7.
The Parliament of the World’s Religions invites proposals for programs, presentations, and performances at the 2018 Parliament of the World’s Religions, to be held on November 1-7 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
This seven-day event has in the past featured appearances from luminaries like the His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama, President Nelson Mandela, Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi, United Nations Messenger of Peace Dr. Jane Goodall, and President Jimmy Carter.
It has also featured hundreds of important religious and civic leaders, scholars from numerous fields, courageous advocates, and creative artists and performers.
This forthcoming Parliament of the World’s Religions will be the seventh convening and coincide with the 125-year anniversary of the inaugural World Parliament of Religions, one of best-attended congresses held during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, USA.
Recognized as the birth of the modern interfaith movement, the 1893 Parliament is remembered for its groundbreaking interreligious dialogues among leaders of Eastern and Western religious traditions, highlighting interreligious understanding and cooperation as a means of cultivating social harmony. Six subsequent Parliaments hosted in the United States, Europe, Africa and Australia have been attended by more than 40,000 persons from around the world committed to the ideals and advocacy promoted by the modern global interfaith movement.
The 2018 Parliament will also honor the 25-year anniversary of the centenary Parliament of the World’s Religions held in Chicago in 1993, and its landmark document, the Declaration Towards a Global Ethic.
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All interested attendees are welcomed and encouraged to register and submit a program proposal by the due dates noted in this call for programs.
Program types may include but are not limited to any of the following:
-Lecture or oral presentation
-Academic paper
-Seminar
-Panel discussion
-Religious or spiritual observance
-Workshop,
-Training session
-Artistic performance
-Film
The theme of the 2018 Parliament of the World’s Religions is:
The Promise of Inclusion, the Power of Love: Pursuing Global Understanding, Reconciliation, and Change
Programming for the 2018 Parliament will focus largely, but not exclusively, on:
-the broad critical issues of our mission statement (justice, peace and sustainability)
-our critical constituencies (Indigenous Peoples, The Next Generations, and Women and Girls)
-the signature document of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, Declaration Toward a Global Ethic
Programs will also be welcomed focused on additional issues and identities.
A key strategy for the 2018 Parliament is to have clearly identified programs that give attention to the development of global understanding (for example, an enhanced literacy, grasp and appreciation of different religions, cultures, disciplines, concepts, methods, schools of thought; reconciliation (between or among, for example, conflicting or unequal parties, individuals, ideologies, solutions to problems etc.); and change (from an existing condition to a more satisfactory one).
Program proposals are sought in each of these areas or in combinations of them.
Regular programs will be 45, 60, and 90 minutes in length.
Presenters are encouraged to give special attention to proposals that:
-use creative methods of communication
-involve members of two or more religious or spiritual communities or groups
-offer interactive approaches to engage participants
-model gender balance
-use new models of collaborative leadership
Programs and presenters will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
-relationship to the main themes and/or mission of the Parliament of the World’s Religions
-contribution to the overall balance of the 2018 Parliament in terms of religious and spiritual traditions, new as well as well-known voices, academic and experiential formats, and gender balance
-evidence of strategies that successfully engage and interact with participants
The Guiding Principles of the 2018 Parliament are: (1) respectful dialogue: we listen and speak with respect (2) non-proselytizing: we do not attempt to convert others or speak derogatorily about any tradition (3) willingness to explore a wide variety of topics: we embody compassion as we engage in difficult conversations
More details can be found here: https://parliamentofreligions.org/parliament/2018-toronto/toronto-2018
and the call for papers is here: https://parliamentofreligions.org/rfp
