\Graphic by Viacom International The Next Normal Project

Viacom International, the media corporation owning MTV networks and numerable communications platform  is spearheading an ambitious research endeavor. “The Next Normal” plans to be the largest, sharpest, and most…

Young adults take note that the North American Interfaith Network’s annual Connect conference offers substantial discounts when registering by June 15. This year’s events mark the 25th anniversary of the Canada-based organization planning on August 11 – 14 dates in Toronto with the banner “In Diversity is our Strength.”. Read…

A Hero of Mine

All of us can look back over our lives as educators and identify people who have been significant role models. One of those persons for me has been Huston Smith. Perhaps the most important American scholar of religions for five decades, Smith was born the son of Methodist missionaries in Dzang Dok, China, where he spent the first seventeen years of his life. Now ninety-three and confined to a chair in his assisted living apartment…

The Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions in partnership with the DePaul University Office of Religious Diversity is convening a special one hour solidarity circle for interfaith leaders to meet Catholic priest, Padre Alejandro Solalinde, and his Caravan Opening Doors To Hope. 

Solalinde is traveling the U.S. with…

DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATE – JOB OPENING

The Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions (CPWR) has a rich history and current efforts in working with communities of spirit and faith to foster harmony and engagement to bring about a just, peaceful and sustainable world. CPWR is looking for a Development Associate.

The small staff and volunteers work together to carry on the initiatives with the help of an engaged board, and the development associate would work…

Interfaith Youth Core Founder Eboo Patel published a response this week to a Religious Dispatches essay critical of Interfaith as a cure for religious violence. Supporting a notion that Interfaith cooperation has not standardized political values or beliefs across the Interfaith diaspora. Patel asserts differing political positions do not hinder a healthy interfaith community where the shared value is peace and co-existence. Further, he dispels the charge that Interfaith cooperation by…

Interfaith Youth Core Founder Eboo Patel published a response this week to a Religious Dispatches essay critical of Interfaith as a cure for religious violence. Supporting a notion that interfaith cooperation does not manage standardizing values or beliefs, Patel asserts differing political positions do not hinder a healthy interfaith community where the shared value is peace and co-existence. Further, he dispels the charge that Interfaith cooperation by default lobbies  any “X” political…

Interfaith Youth Core Founder Eboo Patel published a response this week to a an essay probing Interfaith as a cure for religious violence posted in the online daily magazine Religion Dispatches. Supporting a notion that interfaith cooperation does not manage standardizing values or beliefs, Patel asserts differing political positions do not hinder a healthy interfaith community where the shared value is peace and co-existence. Further, he dispels the charge that Interfaith cooperation by…

By Leo D. Lefebure

Board Trustee, Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions

In 2007, a group of 138 Islamic scholars from a wide range of traditions issued “A Common Word between Us and You,”  a public letter addressed to the leaders of the Christian world, including Pope Benedict XVI and a long list of others.  The letter proposed the biblical teaching of love of God and neighbor as a common heritage uniting Jews, Christians, and Muslims, and invited…

The Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions is pleased to welcome all to a kickoff Interfaith celebration of our 20th anniversary! Partake in spiritual music, prayer, and conversation to look back on the 1993 Parliament of World Religions and move forward to a harmonious interfaith future! Attendees are welcomed to share in Langar (a meal) directly following the celebration.

When: Saturday, May 11 | 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. (Meal to follow)

Where: Sikh Religious Society |…

The Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions is pleased to welcome all to a kickoff Interfaith celebration of our 20th anniversary! Partake in spiritual music, prayer, and conversation to look back on the 1993 Parliament of World Religions and move forward to a harmonious interfaith future! Attendees are welcomed to share in Langar (a meal) directly following the celebration.

When: Saturday, May 11 | 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. (Meal to follow)

Where: Sikh Religious Society |…

Our life experiences are shaped and colored by violence.  Whether we are dealing with a child caught in the cross fire of gang activity or violence against our religious community or that of our neighbors, transformative leadership  demands that we bring compassionate and proactive responses to the tragedies of our  day and age.  Transformative leadership also demands listening to the stories of those impacted by violence, looking critically at our own faith traditions, and…

The United Nations Alliance of Civilations and the International Organization for Migration are announcing 2013′s PluralPlus Youth Video Festival contest open to ages nine through 25 on the topics of migration, diversity and social inclusion.  Instruction for entries due June 30, 2013 is found on the Plural+ site.

by Rev. Anne Benvenuti, PhD

Board Trustee, The Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions

© April 2013

The “Nones” are the largest and fastest growing segment of the population on the religious landscape in America, according to the most recent Pew survey. In just the last five years, this group of willfully unaffiliated people has grown from 15% to 20% of the population. They are people who have no religious affiliation, and who don’t want one. Yet only…

The Dalai Lama, self-proclaimed feminist and Spiritual leader of Tibet, recently sat down with British journalist Cathy Newman. “I would be pleased if my successor was female,” the Dalai Lama said.

The Telegraph reports,

But the bigger problem is the Dalai Lama doesn’t get to choose who takes on his Buddhist baton. In…

Digging through misinformation circulating online during last week’s coverage of the Boston marathon bombing was a harrowing process, and it was exhausting. Media pieces that denounced Islamic terrorism in the body of the article were often given sensationalized headlines implicating Islam in the Boston bombs.

In the piece, “10 Essential Points About the Boston Marathon Bombers,” blogger Omid Safi of…

The Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions released these statements in the newsletter and on CPWR social media channels in response to the April 15, 2013 bombing at the Boston Marathon.

During the FBI search for the second suspect, widespread misinformation circulated like a virus on the Internet implicating Islamic extremism in the crime. The older brother, suspect number one, died after sustaining fatal injuries in a gunfight with the police the night before. He was…

The council that convenes the Parliament of the World’s Religions recently announced an urgent financial challenge putting the largest and oldest global Interfaith organization into jeopardy of closing imminently after April…

Christian-, Muslim-, and Jewish-Americans ages 18 through 35 are encouraged to apply to the Ecumenical Institute at the Chateau de Bossey of the World Council of Churches for the “Building an Interfaith Community” seminar course running August 12 – 30 this summer in Switzerland. May 1 is the deadline, and financial assistance is available.

“What can we, as people of faith, do to respond and…

Christian-, Muslim-, and Jewish-Americans ages 18 through 35 are encouraged to apply to the Ecumenical Institute at the Chateau de Bossey of the World Council of Churches for the “Building an Interfaith Community” seminar course running August 12 – 30 this summer in Switzerland. May 1 is the deadline, and financial assistance is available.

“What can we, as people of faith, do to respond and…