New interfaith partners: 8-24-09

Way back in 1893 (just 15 years before the Cubs last won a World Series), a World Parliament of Religions gathered in Chicago. Somewhere on one of my bookshelves, I have a two-volume account of what went on there.

Out of that effort has grown a great deal of interfaith activity. In fact, the 1893 gathering often is given credit for spurring interfaith dialogue in this country and elsewhere, too.

The most recent news with connections to that long-ago event is the announcement of a partnership between the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions and Patheos.com, an online resource for people interested in interfaith dialogue.

In a press release about the new partnership, Leo Brunnick, founder and CEO of Patheos, said the "Council for the Parliament of World Religions is unique in its ability to bring so many of the world's religious representatives together. They do the hard but necessary work of fostering interreligious understanding and harmony, while honoring the essential and precious nature of each tradition."

As you can see by looking at the Parliament's Web site, to which I've linked you above, the group plans to hold a conference in December in Melbourne, Australia, a city that, as far as I know, doesn't have a baseball team with anything like my Cubs' century-plus-long record of frustration. (But perhaps religious people while there could ponder whether God is punishing the Cubs for something.)

As I've said many times here, the call of our generation is to learn to live together in religious harmony. The alternative, as we've seen throughout history and many places today, is unsustainable over the long haul and leads only to heartache and even violence.

* * *

A LAZY-BONED POPE?

The cast has been removed from Pope Benedict XVI's broken wrist, but the pontiff says his wrist still is a little "lazy." Still, it's good to see the Catholic hierarchy throw off the cast system.

Comments

[a.theist]

Iggy,

All that notwithstanding, why don't you just post the address of the church a few days before the study?

e.g. "The bible study will be at the First Baptist Church at 1224 Main in Harrisonville, Mo at 6:30PM Monday August 24, 2009"