In an op-ed published today in one of the United States’ most prestigious publications — The Washington Post — major speaker Katherine Marshall extols the fact and potential of the Parliament of the World’s Religions.  By focusing on topics such as poverty, climate change, the role of women of faith and indigenous peoples, Margaret presents a vision of “a fresh determination to mobilize the energies and creativity…”

To read the full story, click here.

The Age has written an article on the role of religious organizations in the war on poverty, featuring many speakers from the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions.  Prof. Katherine Marshall of the Berkley Center for Religion speaks powerfully of the opportunity for good work among the religious of the world: “Poverty is not inevitable, and it is therefore immoral to accept it.”  Other speakers cited in the article include World Vision Australia Chief Executive Tim Costello, Rev. Jim Wallis and Rabbi David Saperstein.

To read the full article, click here.

As we enter into the final days and hours before the Parliament of Religions in Melbourne, Australia, we would like to take some time to reflect on the work ahead.  The 2009 Parliament will be ripe with challenge and promise and we will engage this opportunity by considering the interreligious movement as a whole. We are happy to share this series of five articles to help attendees prepare for their Parliament experience.

Our fourth article is written by Kim Bobo and is titled Ending Poverty: Real Questions for the Interfaith Community.  Bobo affirms the interreligious impulse to combat poverty, but contrasts individual acts of charity with the difficult and often controversial problems of systemic poverty.  Her article is a call to an authentic and ambitious response to poverty, and addresses how this can be achieved at the Parliament of Religions.

Kim Bobo is the Executive Director of Interfaith Worker Justice and is the former Director of Organizing for the organization Bread for the World. She is the author of Lives Matter: A Handbook for Christian Organizing and Wage Theft in America: Why Millions of Working Americans Are Not Getting Paid – And What We Can Do About It, and co-author of Organizing for Social Change. She writes a column for the online magazine Religion Dispatches.  Please read her full article here.

What is the Parliament about? Quite simply, We Are All in This Together.  Which is why we’ve just published seven great public-service announcements in connection with our upcoming Parliament in Melbourne. In addition to the video I linked above, there are six others, each corresponding to the subthemes of this year’s event.

For an approach to the problem of Healing the Earth with Care and Concern and the perspectives of Indigenous Peoples, watch this video.

The subtheme of Overcoming Poverty in an Unequal World is an issue confronted in this video.

This video announcement addresses the question of Securing Food and Water for All People.

Does peace come about at the expense of justice or must one be present for the other?  The pressing dilemma of Building Peace in the Pursuit of Justice is pondered in this video PSA.

What is meant by “Creating Social Cohesion in Village and City?”  Find out in this video.

Finally, witness the process of Sharing Wisdom in the Search for Inner Peace in this video announcement.

The Parliament of Religions is happy to share several videos that we have put together. They each wrestle with questions confronting the world today and try to come to grips with the roles that religion can fill and the opportunities that it presents.

They are:

How Can We Seek Peace While Promoting Justice?

What Does Our Spirituality Teach Us About Poverty?

Can Religious Organisations Promote Social Cohesion?

Who Will Guide Us in Our Care of the Earth?

You can see these videos and more at the Parliament’s YouTube channel here.