A Practical Commitment to a Non-Violent Search for Peace
Homer Jack Led the Way for Us All
Praying Together
The World Congress of Faiths – An Overview
Francis Younghusband – Explorer, Mystic, Interfaith Pioneer
The Genesis of International Interfaith Organizing
The Legacy of the 1893 Parliament of the World Religions
The legacy of the 1893 World Parliament of Religions did not live up to the high hopes of its organizers. The dream of a new era of universal peace too soon became the bloody nightmare of twentieth century battlefields and genocide.
Women Provide Prophetic Voices in 1893 – Part 2
Swami Vivekanda’s famous greeting at the 1893 World Parliament of Religions, “Sisters and Brothers of America,” brought 7,000 women and men to their feet, clapping “for more than three minutes” before he could resume. But on the platform of speakers, women were a small minority, offering a little more than ten percent of the 200 presentations.
Women Provide Prophetic Voices in 1893 – Part 1
“As Columbus discovered America, the Columbian Exposition in Chicago discovered woman.” This was the optimistic boast of Bertha Palmer (1849-1918), president of the Board of Lady Managers at the Exposition, of which the 1893 World Parliament of Religions was part. She was a businesswoman and philanthropist. The Palmer House, where many participants in the 1993 Parliament stayed, bears her name.
Spirituality in the 21st Century
Pan-Asian Participation in the 1893 Parliament
Some Jain friends at the 1993 Parliament of World Religions gave me a booklet with the title We Were There As Well. Too easily the starring role of Swami Vivekananda has obscured the significant contribution that other Asian participants made a hundred years earlier at the 1893 World Parliament of Religions, participants who deserve to be remembered.
High Tea with Marcus and Mary
by Ruth Broyde Sharone
The English landscape rushed by the bus window, lush green hills alternating with roads that twisted and turned through leafy glens.
The Light of Hope Renewed
I saw the world. A giant snake, enormously powerful, was coiling itself around the world. The globe seemed too weak to withstand the pressure. I could see the cracks in it. Then I saw a light at the centre of the world. Enter into this light I was told... That Light is the only hope - we, the poor and the rich, the oppressed and oppressors, the theists and atheists, Christians, Muslims, Jews Buddhists, Hindus . We all must get to that light, for it is the light of love and life, the light of hope and future.
Olympic Gold and Going for the Golden Rule
In ancient Greece, the Olympic Games were also a religious occasion and accompanied by a 100 days truce midst any warfare. Today some faith groups have observed 100 days of prayer for peace and that the Games would foster international friendship.
John Henry Barrows: Producing the First Parliament of Religions
Charles Carroll Bonney has been properly credited for coming up with the idea of a World Parliament of Religions. But it was John Henry Barrows who made the historic 1893 event a reality. Bonney’s idea was that the World Fair in Chicago and its great exhibits should be accompanied by a series of “congresses” or parliaments to provide a forum for discussing the state of anthropology, art, commerce and finance, education, labor, literature, medicine, philosophy, temperance, and religion. The most important congresses to Bonney were about religion. He, therefore, established a committee to organise them and appointed Rev. Dr. John Henry Barrows the chair.
Charles Bonney and the Idea for a World Parliament of Religions
The 1893 World Parliament of Religions in Chicago is often regarded as the birth of the interfaith movement. But whose idea was it? The answer is Charles Carroll Bonney.
Interfaith and Peace, Social Justice, and Respect for the Earth
“War no more.” That was the hope that inspired Charles Bonney as he explained in his opening address to the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions. Bonney believed that a major cause of conflict was “because the religious faiths of the world have most seriously misunderstood and misjudged each other.”i One hundred years later, Hans Küng declared that there would be “No peace in the world without peace between religions.”ii
Indigenous Peoples Making an Interfaith Difference
Indigenous peoples were welcomed to the 1993, 1999, and 2004 Parliament of the World’s Religions and they enriched those gatherings. But the 2009 Parliament held in Melbourne will be remembered for holding up the significant contributions that Indigenous people are making to the interfaith movement.
Should People of Different Faiths Pray Together?
This question has become increasingly important with the growing interaction between members of the world religions at all levels of society. Still quite a new issue in the Western world, few churches have given it much attention. In most cases, practice is well in advance of thinking about interfaith worship. I write as a Christian, mainly from a British context, and it will be good to hear from other standpoints.
The Oneness of the Human Family
A Declaration of Oneness for the Human Family,” drafted by Robert Muller and circulated by the Temple of Understanding, did not ignite the global interfaith response that other foundational documents have inspired. But it underlined and helped articulate an assumption that drives all interfaith endeavour, that there is a unique, connective oneness to the human family, and that every member of the family deserves respect, dignity, and opportunity. Marcus Braybrooke, who participated in the ‘Oneness’ discussions over the years, tells how the idea developed.