RECLAIMING THE HEART OF OUR HUMANITY

For the first time in more than twenty years, the Parliament of the World's Religions returned to the United States bringing people of spirit and faith from around the world to beautiful Salt Lake City, Utah. Ten thousand people from over 80 countries and 50 different religious and spiritual traditions came together to share, learn, network and celebrate. It opened on Thursday, October 15 and closed Monday October 19.

The 2015 Parliament continues a rich tradition of initiating dialogue and nurturing relationships among people of different faiths, providing a framework for expressing many visions of a just, peaceful, and sustainable future.

The theme of the Parliament was: "Reclaiming the Heart of our Humanity ". What this really means, according to a young visionary leader, is, "Thousands of kindred spirts, grounded in faith, coming together with compassion and forgiveness, with curiosity and convictions, with expansive vision and following a deeply personal call to action in response to the urgency of these times."

Thursday started off with the inauguration of the first Women's Assembly at the Parliament. 19 women addressed the first Parliament of World Religions in 1893. This year, women comprised over 60 percent of the 2015 parliament's registrants. This plenary brought together diverse female religious leaders to address the vital nexus of women and religion. These leaders shared their collective wisdom for the empowerment of all, in addition to celebrating their achievements within the interfaith movement. The majority of the attendees and speakers at the Parliament were women, and their voices were well represented and received. Some of the major speakers were: Marianne Williamson, Mother Maya Tiwari, Dr. Serene Jones, Mara Lynn Keller, Bishop Barbara King, Vandana Shiva, Dr. Karen Armstrong and many more.

I attended a Sheroes flash mob which was part of the Women's plenary. This was a powerful opening for the 2015 Parliament. The Sheroes initiated the One Billion Rising dance. It was determined by statisticians and civil right groups that, due to the population on earth, over one billion women would be raped, beaten, or murdered in their lifetime. The One Billion Rising dance is a celebration to transform the suffering of women into healing and into empowerment. I was slightly taken by the drums and women singing, crying, and dancing and at the same time holding up their hands in support of women wherever they might be. It was a very powerful performance!

At the end of Thursday's Assembly each woman affirmed and signed a declaration to uphold women's dignity and the integral role we play in our respective faith traditions.

The Dalai Lama was expected but could not attend because of health issues. He gave a speech using a streamline video. One thing that stood out for me from what he said was, "Praying is good, but to change the world we need to act more!!"

There were four plenaries throughout the event which focused on topics such as Emerging Leaders, Income Inequality; War, Violence and Hate Speech; and Climate Change.

From Friday until Monday participants could attend numerous sessions, including: Indigenous women's wisdom sharing, Building bridges between spiritually and the people, and spiritual leadership, Building a future and fostering sustainability, What makes a city compassionate? A conversation with mayors, etc. These sessions were just the tip of the iceberg.

One of the Empower films called "The Mask You Live In" touched me deeply. This film follows boys and young men as they struggle to stay true to themselves while negotiating America's narrow definition of masculinity. Pressured by the media, their peers, and even the adults in their lives, they receive messages encouraging them to disconnect from their emotions, devalue authentic friendships, degrade women, and resolve conflicts through violence. This film was empowering because it made me realize again how much our men are in pain, and how women play an important role in healing our boys and men. The film producer was there to take questions and asked if we could show this movie to 200,000 children by the year 2017 so that we can raise a healthier generation of boys and young men.

We received a booklet that had 375 pages, 250 of the pages were dedicated to sessions you could attend by a diverse group of religious leaders, scientists, and others.

That was not all! Throughout the event, cultural exhibit halls, sacred spaces, art exhibitions, the Empower Film Festival, and many other special activities and programs were presented.

The Langar lunch was provided to all who attended the Parliament. Langar is the Sikh word for "open kitchen." It was designed to uphold the principle of people eating as equals regardless of religion, cast, color, creed, age, gender or social status and no one goes hungry. You would sit on a mat and the Sikh members would serve you a tasty vegetarian meal.

Dr. Paul Eppinger, who is the Executive Director of the Arizona Interfaith Movement (AIFM), was

honored with the first Golden Rule Award at the Golden Rule Banquet by the Parliament of WorldReligions. He gave a very touching speech and asked us to: "Always follow the Golden Rule, no matter what". It reminded me of WFWP Founders' motto: "Living for the sake of others and live with True Love."

The great news we received at the Golden Rule banquet is the Parliament will be hosted every two years instead of every five years. We are not sure where it will be next time, and my hope is to have WFWP USA represented.

I hope this report has expressed my heart in given you a small taste of the Parliament. It was truly exhilarating, especially with the new friends of faith I made who have shown such a heart of love towards me. I came back with a deep sense of hope and "a strong feeling to a call of action," to dig deeper in building a better world for our descendants.