Aborigines to Zoroastrians

We were the A-Z of religions - literally, from Aborigines to Zoroastrians - and  everything in between: Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Indigenous, Jews, Muslims, Pagans, Quakers, Rastafarians, Sikhs, Taoists, Unitarians, Voodoo, Wiccans, Yoruba.  We represented two hundred and twenty different religions and spiritualities – I had no idea there were so many!

In the first week of December 2009 six thousand delegates from eight hundred cities from eighty countries gathered in Melbourne for the Parliament of the Worlds Religions, the world’s largest global interreligious event.

With over one thousand five hundred performers and presenters for six hundred events over ten days from morning to night the Parliament was a veritable feast of faiths. The vibrantly coloured robes and the array of headwear of bishops, clerics, imams, monks, nuns, rabbis, swamis, and believers from different religions and different cultures mingling among those with more secular attire wove a fascinating fabric of religious and cultural diversity among both audience and presenters. We truly were a microcosm of our world.

Despite its name, the Parliament is not a legislative body, so it does not have authority to make laws or issue decrees. It simply brings believers, scholars and leaders of the different religions together, to meet each other, to get to know one another, to share issues and concerns from their different religious perspectives, and to build networks for ongoing conversations.

Starting each day were a variety of religious observances, when members of a religion performed their ritual devotions, explaining to guests from other religions the significance of their symbols and rites.  Then there were intra-faith gatherings, where the scholars and leaders of a particular religion taught their co-religionists and others about their own traditions and their responsibilities in and for the world. And there were interfaith or multi-faith gatherings that brought people of different religions together on matters of interreligious or social concern. Most of the presentations were done through panels of five or more speakers (it was a marathon effort to listen to so many speakers, so it was not uncommon as the day wore on to see someone having a quiet rest in the Lord!).

Most impressive were the religious scholars with a long intellectual tradition of serious grappling with scriptures, of interpreting the text in its original context, of drawing out the inspired lessons and values, and applying them in the changed circumstances of our day. So it was that, contrary to popular stereotypes, Jewish Rabbis and Muslim Imams could both argue from their respective religious sources and readily agree with each other on matters of substance, namely to work tirelessly for peace with justice.  In a world seemingly torn apart along religious lines, this witness of the collective benefits of serious scholarship was both reassuring and challenging.

To meet so many believers from such diverse religions, to share conversations and meals together, and yet to experience a fundamental unity, a sense of belonging together, that each of us was in different ways working for the same ends—to promote human and planetary flourishing, in service of God and our neighbour—even though we articulated that aim in a variety of ways, was very heartening and encouraging. 

A phrase quoted by a Rabbi catches the spirit and the challenge of the Parliament: “If you do not see God in all, you do not see God at all.”

Fr Patrick McInerney SSC is the Co-odinator of the Centre for Christian Muslim Relations and Columban Vocations.

Watch A to Z of Religions