from AFP/Yahoo news

US President Barack Obama sent a message to world religious leaders meeting in Assisi on Thursday, speaking of the power of interfaith dialogue to help the afflicted and bring peace.

“Through interfaith dialogue, we can unite in common cause to lift the afflicted, make peace where…

By Steve McSwain

from Huffington Post

Thomas Merton, Roman Catholic Trappist monk (1915-68) was one of the greatest proponents of “inter-spirituality” in modern history. He believed that the pursuit of a mystical life was the key to meaning, as well as unity, between people.

He was right then. He’s still right today.

I’m a Christian by…

By Aparna Nair

from The Times of India

NAGPUR: Prasanna Kaimal stands precariously on her terrace, helping her brother hang up the lights for Diwali. People doing all kinds of stunts for Diwali decorations is not a new thing. What sets Prasanna apart is that her community does not traditionally celebrate Diwali. She belongs to the Malayalee…

Engy Abdelkader

from Huffington Post

“You boys were so much fun on the 8th grade trip! Thanks for not bombing anything while we were there!” read the yearbook inscription penned by the middle school teacher.

The eighth grade yearbook was littered with similar remarks by classmates linking Omar to a “bomb.”

“To my bomb man!” read one note. “Come wire my bomb,” read…

by Jonathan Oskins

from State of Formation

News agencies were already slow to cover the movement in New York, so it is no surprise that reporting on the involvement of religious people at Occupy Together took even longer. But the wait was worth it, with fellow State of Formation…

Sermon for Erev Yom Kippur 5772

by Rabbi Brant Rosen

Cedric Cal was born to a single mother, in a family that lived below the poverty line on Chicago’s West Side. His father had left the family, married another woman and had very little to do with him. His mother Olivia worked constantly, doing her best to keep her family together. As the oldest of four, Cedric became the de facto father of the family and was entrusted with protecting his younger brother, who was…

by Anju Bhargava

CPWR Trustee

Deepavali popularly known as Diwali, literally means a row (avali) of lights (deepa). In essence it is the celebration of the awakening and awareness of the Inner Light. This Inner Light, though not seen outside, outshines all darkness by removing removes all obstacles and dispeling all ignorance. When this inner realization blossoms then there is universal compassion, love, and the awareness of the oneness of all things. It awakens the…

Members of Midwest Buddhist Temple host neighboring communities on a tour of their facility.

Midwest Buddhist Temple

by Susan Schwendener

Chicago-area religious and spiritual communities are gathering this fall through May 2012 in eight downtown places of worship. The program is intended to foster a better understanding of each other’s traditions and to…

by Ellen Grace O’Brian

Vice-Chair, CPWR Board of Trustees

As a practitioner of yoga, I was aware of the Parliament of the World’s Religions as the watershed interreligious event that opened the door to yoga in the West through Swami Vivekananda’s dynamic presence at the first convening in 1893. What I didn’t know was that beginning in 1993, this powerful global event was now occurring approximately every five years and was open to everyone with an interest in the…

Religious and Cultural Traditions in Transitional Justice

by Landon E. Hancock and Aysegul Keskin Zeren

from Journal of Religion, Conflict, and Peace

Transitional justice mechanisms are typically created to aid societies moving from authoritarian rule or as part of a post-conflict reconciliation process. For the most part their construction reflects one of two trends that have developed in the wake of the…

Divine Mother Audrey Kitagawa

from Godspeed Institute for Spiritual Learning

“The simplest questions are the most profound. Where were you born? Where is your home? Where are you going? What are you doing? Think about these once in a while and watch your answers change.” – from the…

Vivekananda in Chicago, 1893. (Vedanta Society of Southern California)

by Ann Louise Bardach

from New York Times

Ann Louise Bardach is a writer at large for Newsweek. She is working on a biography of Vivekananda.

The party planning is in full swing throughout India.…

by Yaira Robinson

from State of Formation

Word on the progressive street was, the Koch brothers and Big Oil were paying for busloads of people to come to the State Department hearings and speak in favor of the …

by Chris Stedman

from Huffington Post

When I was in high school, civil disobedience excited me. I participated in a school walkout in protest of the Iraq War, staged a demonstration outside of a conference for anti-gay “reparative therapy,” and regularly got together with friends to make T-shirts boasting our political positions. Though the underlying political motives behind these…

		Wednesday, November 9, 2011 10:00am U.S. Central Time

Christopher Peters

Christopher Peters…

by Alisa Roadcup

from Amnesty International

Amnesty’s Women’s Human Rights Coordination Group member Alisa Roadcup was fortunate to sit down with Pamela Hogan, Director of Women, War & Peace, a bold new five-part PBS television series…

Jaweed Kaleem

from Huffington Post

It was a few years ago that Reima Yosif, a devout Muslim, discovered a surprising family secret: she was Jewish — kind of.

The revelation came while Yosif, who lives in North Brunswick, N.J., was mourning her grandfather’s death. A cousin who had inherited his belongings came upon old identification papers for their grandmother, who had…

By Anya Cordell

from Washington Post

Hatred is a current ‘cool’ fad—but a terribly dangerous one.

Four days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, three innocent men, (Sikh, Muslim and Egyptian Christian) were murdered. The killer of the Sikh victim vowed to “kill the ragheads,” shooting the first person he saw wearing a turban.…

by Bud Heckman

How do we know when we have arrived in the interfaith movement?  When religious pluralism is normative?  When religious differences don’t cause conflict or even concern?

Things have been changing rapidly in the expanding field of interfaith relations. Therefore, it may be worth measuring our progress by some milestones of our achievement…

Yael R. Wurmfeld

It is with deep sadness that we note the passing of Yael R. Wurmfeld, longtime member of the Board of Trustees of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions.

Yael served as Director of the international office (Office of Pioneering) of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States for over 20 years. She was a…