This week, I am in Melbourne, Australia attending the Parliament of World Religions. Through Pace e Bene’s partnership with the Interfaith Center @ the Presidio, I received a youth scholarship to attend this special conference. The Parliament happens every 5 years. It was in Barcelona in 2003, Capetown in 1998, and in Chicago 1993. The original conference in 1893 also took place in Chicago.

Since arriving Wednesday morning, my days have been jam packed. Here is a  review of some of the workshops I’ve attended in the past few days.

• Indigenous Perspectives on Conflict Resolution with panelists from the Philippines, Uganda and Onondaga (NY, USA). I was especially interested in Lilybeth Sulutan of the Bagobo Tagabawa. Being Filipina myself, it was truly enlightening to hear of indigenous approaches to resolving conflicts within their communities. I learned, that although my particular barrio in the Northern Philippines is majorly Catholic, we share many similarities with our Muslim and indigenous neighbors on the southern islands. For example, we both rely on shamans and elders to resolve conflicts, or to identify/analyze the origins of conflict.

• Convening Session - Conflict Resolution with panelists Dharma Master Hsin Tao, Fr. Leonel Narvaez and Dr. William Vendley. (I’ll have to blog about this later, as they had very diverse approaches to conflict resolution. )

• Islam & Politics: Faith, Governance and Society - Dr. Tariq Ramadan was of the panelists. Individually, the panel addressed questions such as:

What is the role of faith and governance in majority Muslim societies like Malaysia? How does this affect how politics take shape? What happens if the society is also secular or multi-religious, or if it highly values religion
as having a primary role in nation building?

Today, Saturday Australian time, I spent the majority of the day on the 15th floor of the Hilton hotel. The room has a spectacular view of the Yarra River and Melbourne coast line.

From here we are broadcasting live interviews with people we ‘snatched’ from the conference grounds. Individuals such as Sister Joan Chittister (Benetvision), Rev. Donald ‘Bud’ Heckman (Religions for Peace), Elder Don Frew (Wiccan) and many more to come.

You should defintely check out our upcoming live webcasts. If you do, you’ll have the chance to chat with me live, and I’ll relay your incoming questions to our guests. Visit this site to see the schedule>>

Lastly, here are a few more pictures from the last couple of days.

Didgeridoo and aboriginal art work

Colorful hallways of the conference center

Atheists practicing free speech outside the conference center. They are just one of several groups that have demonstrated outside the Parliament.

Oh, and I just had to include a couple photos of the fabulous Australian food and art. Featuring pastries, pies, and rice balls. The art is quite fascinating too, including this huge installation of metal sponges.

Till next time. Cheers.