An Advent Sermon on Compassion for All of Humanity
by Rev. J. Edwin Bacon, Jr.
The Advent Wreath becomes our focal symbol, with four candles, one lighted each week. There are a variety of values and dynamics that those candles can represent: faith, hope, joy, peace. But the overarching value and dynamic represented by the increasing number of candles burning more brightly each week?
That dynamic is enlightenment. Light. The ability to see what is really going on in our lives. The value of alertness, of watchfulness, of consciousness, of awareness...
Every time you and I wake up to the fact that the world is a moral universe, where every human being is interconnected, and that we live in a universe that has a moral arc and that it is long but it always bends toward justice, whenever we awake to the fact that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere, and that the way that the universe actually works, its inner system of humming and buzzing and moving forward, is through compassion and grace and love. Whenever we awaken to that, we have awakened to the Holy Spirit that lives and dwells within each one of us, as well as being outside and beyond us. Don’t sleepwalk through that reality.
...[Moving forward,] this light, this awareness, this alertness sometimes needs to be used as an armor to protect our souls. Read more...
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God and Newtown
by Martin E. Marty
Four daily newspapers greet the Martys at breakfast. The morning after the school killings at Newtown, Connecticut, twenty-four pages of these informed us, while zillions of twitters and tweets and television and radio programs also addressed the tragedy. [It's obvious that there are]traces of religion-in-public life, since coverage of it comes in blinding flashes when certain issues come up. So, just three reflections: Read more...
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CPWR Visits Guadalajara
by CPWR Trustee Andras C.Arthan
CPWR trustees Andras Corban-Arthen, Kirit Daftary, and Robert Sellers just returned from a visit with our partners of the Carpe Diem Foundation in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Read more...
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Educating Religious Leaders for a Multi-Religious World
by CPWR Trustee Anantanand Rambachan
The Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions was pleased to facilitate an interfaith gathering of 17 key leaders, representing 10 different faith traditions to explore the preparation and role of religious leaders in an increasingly interreligious world. The meeting was held on October 7-8, 2012 in California at the Claremont School of Theology of Claremont Lincoln University (see photo right).
Little attention has been given to the nature of leadership or leadership education across religious and spiritual traditions. Still less is known about the role of multi-religious considerations in the preparation of religious leaders in most religious and spiritual communities. This group will gather again in the spring 2013 in New York to continue its study of the nature of leadership and leadership education across religious and spiritual traditions. Read more...
Call for Papers from the Hickey Center for Interfaith Study and Dialogue
The CPWR will be co-sponsoring the Hickey Center's conference on "Sacred Texts and Human Contexts: A Symposium on the Role of the Sacred Texts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in Uniting and Dividing Humanity" on June 23-25, 2013. The Rochester conference will be followed by another conference in June 2014 in Istanbul, Turkey. The last date to submit your abstracts is January 31, 2013. Click here to read more and submit papers on the conference website.
From CPWR's Bookshelf, We Recommend...
A beautiful collection of prayers was recently published in the book A World of Prayer: Spiritual Leaders, Activists, and Humanitarians Share their Favorite Prayers, edited by Rosalind Bradley. Introducing the book in terms reflecting the deeply-felt mission of the Council for a Parliament of the Worlds Religions, Bradley states, ““Our current global situation with its ongoing tensions, wars, and conflicts has convinced me of the importance of finding ways to transcend religious divides and foster greater understanding and mutual respect between the world’s religions” (xxiv).
Read more...
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Educating Future Leaders
The Council is committed to equipping leaders to better engage our increasingly multi-religious world. From special student programming at Parliaments to trainings, workshops and the Parliament Webinar Series, we are giving leaders the tools they need to form connections and make a difference.
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