Wow! Great NPR article about The Parliament of World Religions! Watch Discourse for LIVE reporting and pictures throughout the week!
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Thanks for this info. If you have the address could you send it to me.
Thanks,
Firozia Slalttery
Here’s the link to the article about The Parliament of World Religions on NPR News. Please add to your Discourse the Discourse for The Universal Worship to see our pictures and stories about our adventure this week!
Dear Firozia, did you mean the address of The Parliament? Here’s the website for that!
Welcome to Chicago! Yesterday a parade of costumed participants from 80 countries and over 100 faith traditions greeted us in the afternoon; the Sikh Community offered Langar: and Dances of Universal Worship hosted a meet-n-greet followed by hours of ecstatic dance and song at the 2nd Presbyterian Church, just a 6 minute walk from Parliament Central. Today the Parliament begins, 6,000 souls weaving the world together through the unity of all religions and a passion for peace and social justice.
Sadly, Discourse does not support posting pictures, so I’ll send a Universal Worship Newsletter mid week and again at the end of the week, Reply to this post with your name and email to join the Universal Worship Newsletter and enjoy our adventure through pictures, too!
If you haven’t already, add The Universal Worship Discourse segment to your selections.
Light! Cathy Fattah
Monday @ Parliament was a whirlwind of meeting and greeting and weaving the world together through the commonality of all faith practices: connecting heart-to-heart with the Face of God in so many faces. We each spent the day cruising the Exhibition Hall, connecting with individuals of multiple sects of Jews and Hindus and Taoists and Catholics and Muslims and Hare Krishna and so many more. And many secular groups as well: women’s issues in various forms such as ordination of women; ending child marriage, basic women’s rights; racial issues (like Black Lives Matter, social and economic justice, ethnic cleansing in India, Southeast Asia, the Balkans, Russia); environmental action; food equality; ending death penalty and solitary confinement; justice for all.
The Abrahamic Reunion screened their documentary “Elias Jabbour: Palestinian Christian Peacemaker,” and afterward gave personal testimonials of healing Israel (“We have a choice. We can live together or we can die together.”)
The dances of Universal Peace did a ‘flash mob.’
The Universal Worship gave a mini service at noon at our booth. The booth drew many seekers new to our group as well as several Sufis from decades of old who were both surprised to see us here and full of gratitude to reconnect.
Later at a session labeled ‘Reclaiming Our Freedom,” an interfaith panel discussed stepping outside of the constraints of religion and taking responsibility …. for the environment, for humanity, for each other.
“Ask not what your country can did for you, ask what you can do for your country. Ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”
“Let us not wait for a savior, let us all BE the saviors…”
“How someone treats you is your karma. How you react or respond is yours.”
Finished the evening with a quiet internal hour in The Yurt of the Heart: a sublime installation environment for meditation… (battery) candles, meditation cushions and flowers all scattered about the silky fabric loosely flowed across the floor and draped around the circling wall. Ahhhhhhh. Ohmmmmmmm. Sigh.
Add The Universal Worship to your Discourse salmagundi! - Cathy Fattah
Tuesday at Parliament
Universal Worship offered a celebration of all religions in a vast public space within the conference center, an informal worship service of poetry, song, scriptures, dance and lots of heart-pouring and even some laughter. It has been the highlight at The Parliament of World Religions so far for us and for many other souls. “This was the best thing I’ve experienced at Parliament so far “ shared one participant.
And also, noon every day at our booth in the exhibition hall, people are drawn to our ‘pop-up’ informal service. Meeting new people, making connections, weaving the world together….
Wish I could post pictures! Will send an email Newsletter soon with photos… Send your e-dress if you’d like to see our photo album, to UniversalWorship@inayatiyya.org
Note: There’s an error in the address posted by Fattah; it should read: UniversalWorship@inyatiyya.org
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Thank you for these wonderful updates!
Alia Nur
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For our Wednesday ‘Live from Parliament”, I asked people to share one moving experience from their day.
Mumtaz: A filmmaker (perhaps the Parliament Documentarian?) came by our booth. He had pondered “What question can I ask that will capture the essence of Parliament?” The filmmaker landed on “How do you define God?” Mumtaz began his response by pointing out that even though we here at The Universal Worship booth share the commonality of being ordained, and of being Inayatiyya, Ruhaniat, and other Sufis, our answers would likely be uniquely individual.
Mumtaz also celebrates these times ( as I scribe) of Cherag(a)s coming together: sharing from the heart; telling experiences and birthing ideas; building friendships and community.
Jalila: ENOUGH. 4 foot tall letters across one end of one of the expansive patios fronting Lake Michigan spell out ‘ENOUGH.’ Extended from this declaration are suspended hundreds of banners handwritten by Parliament attendees bearing the names of people lost to gun violence. On Wednesday, a blacksmith arrived to transform guns into garden trowels to be distributed for use in community gardens. When he invited people to take part in the process, a woman led a child of about 7 years to the front. Hesitantly, timidly at first, the child took up the hammer and gingerly struck the metal. And again. And again. And again, each time harder, stronger, increasing in resolution, strength, power, intention.
Two feelings/thoughts came up for Jalila: First, “What a wonderful connection with the past, this ancient craft of blacksmithing, still at work in our world.”
And second, the importance of teaching the children by WHAT WE DO.
Majida noted that in addition to the many faith traditions present, presenting, breathing together at this Parliament, there are numerous groups of intention who do not represent any particular faith. There are experiences and conversations around women’s rights, children in crisis, poverty, the earth, transforming policy, creating peace (which, as Shahabadin pointed out on Monday, is NOT the absence of conflict), food insecurity, judicial equity, and so much more. And out of this gallimaufry is emerging a surge intentions, plans, the energies of change.
Rahmana was particularly moved by the crowd of souls, open hearts and outpourings of love at The Cosmic Mass. Hundreds joined in ecstatic song and dance to attune to the Divine, in as many forms as there were people. Mathew Fox asked us to greet one other person we didn’t know and to share “How I define Sacred.” He then invited us to a period of communal grieving…. for personal grief; familial grief; community grief; ancestral grief; earth grief…… And so for a time we keened and cried and howled and shrieked… and then with another dance and voices raised in song, created space for healing.
Bakia (to come)
Mana’ar Yesterday’s Dances of Universal Peace engaged with nature through dance and meditation. Yesterday was the new moon! Many traditions celebrate this celestial phenomena as a good time for new beginnings and the setting of intentions. With dance and song we drew in the energies of the New Moon.
Fattah!: For me, the most salient moments have been born of serendipitous kismet. Our Universal Worship on Tuesday, along with our daily informal devotional pop-ups at the booth, emerge from loose outlines into spontaneous expressions of praise.
At a Kirtan, When the scheduled leader did not appear, the ‘audience’ came together. Each of us led a chant or song from our own traditions, with long stretches of silence between as we immersed in the vibrational frequencies of each practice until it gradually faded away, or rather, rippled out across the landscape of The Parliament and the world. I offered ‘Aman,’ sanctuary chant.
Afterward, a minister of a church and an organizer of a community center followed me down the hall asking to the clarify practice of Aman so that they could take it back to their Sanctuary Centers.
We invite you to add The Universal Worship Discourse to your feed, and, if you’d like to see our photos from The Parliament, send your name and email to us at UniversalWorship@inayatiyya.org
Thursday Live! From Parliament
This afternoon Fattah! attended a gathering of Voices from various religions who spoke of walking together to combat anti-semitism; to speak up, to say “This is not right.” Their passionate comments apply beyond the realm of anti-semitism to reflect upon hate directed at any group, be it religious or cultural or gender or national or…
This work needs to be boots on the ground, local action, one-on-one and small group endeavors.
One man lamented that in the USA, even though the number of people who identify with any organized religion is on the wane, many extremists utilize Religions as vehicles for political will. Those extremists hijack the names and identities of Religions to drive the fervor of hate through good organizational and communications marketing skills.
Later an interesting presentation named ‘Sikh 101’ provided a basic understanding of the faith. Five people outlined the 3 pillars of Sikhism and how they are expressed today as throughout history;
Sad to hear about, they spoke of the tragedies of Sikh martyrdom throughout history - in many places and times, the way that Sikhs have taken a stand for the oppressed has not been appreciated by Authority, and so they were the victims of genocide. Holidays of remembrance honor their memories and are celebrated as a way to interest the children in their faith.
Sikhs honor all the prophets and scriptures. They do not claim supremacy of their faith. They suggest:
“If you claim a particular religion, know it completely, honor it, live it.”
Of note, the last Guru proclaimed that he would be the last human embodiment; that going forward, the Sikh scriptures would serve as The Light. This reminded me of Pir Zia’s teachings about ‘Planetary Prophecy.’
Many of us have enjoyed the daily Langaar offered by the Sikhs here, an embodiment of one of their tenants of faith: serving others and sharing income and resources with others regardless of caste, creed, sexual orientation, religion, or need.
“Do not stop sharing until everyone is on the same plane.”
Yummy lunch every day included rice, and then curry of some sort with veggies, sometimes lentils, or sometimes beans.
Mumtaz appreciated the session Queer Spirituality: What Does That Mean?
Within a group or organization, is there representation, do Queer people feel they are a part of the community? Is there acceptance and inclusion, not just tolerance? Does your organization help Queer people overcome spiritual trauma?
Speakers encouraged attendees to look for possible hidden Queer stories that might be in scriptures and encouraged people as Queers in spiritual groups to cross boundaries, be present and be a voice to Queerness.
Let us look at how our organization is addressing homophobia and transphobia, and be acutely aware of the possibility of resultant suicide.
Jabriel mused that at the Queer gathering people seemed to really need to be heard. “The energy was so high in this gathering! “
The Cosmic Mass was a favorite event of Jabriel’s at this Parliament. “It was so experiential, ecstatic, primal…. and included a combination of variations of experiences I’ve had with different traditions.”
Jabbar continues to be impressed by the work of The Abrahamic Reunion in fostering peace in Israel, and more broadly, across religious traditions around the world.
At a later event, Jabbar experienced shocking realization about of the brutality of the incarceration of children and adolescents. The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth works to raise awareness and change policy. In this session five of the people had been incarcerated as youth - for a combined total of 108 years - with no parol - and were prosecuted as adults. Suicide is a real threat to these victims of our biased judicial system.
Jabbar noted that in any session, sitting in a circle rather than rows of chairs facing a stage makes a big difference in the attendees’ experience. Sharing names and life stories with the group further brought people to open hearted communication and open minded learning.
An evening of Sacred Music closed out an emotionally taxing day.
Friday Live From Parliament!
And so it concludes. One last pop-up devotional at our booth, a selection of last events ….
As the few of us remaining packed up our booth, we shared reminiscences to carry home:
A movie about the Baha’i beloved Abdul ‘l Baha, a sweet tribute to a revered soul that most of us flocked to for the chance to see its nod to Hazrat Inayat Khan…
… Mumtaz’ impressions from a session of Tikkum Olim, a feet-on-the earth Jewish mystical path to elevate us to be co-creators with the Divine……
…… Jabbar embraces the fellowship we shared, renewal of old ties, birthing of new friendships, strengthening our community dynamic, connecting us with seekers from around the world across chasms of challenges as we build bridges of congruence…
And, dear reader, this soul, Fattah!, treasures the magical moments that sparkled between and beyond the ’programming,’ and the ocean of love we share….
Want to see our photos from Parliament?
Send your name and email to UniversalWorship@inayatiyya.org
And especially if you are ordained, (really, all are welcome) be sure to add The Universal Worship to your collections of Discourse communities!
Until we meet again….
Thank you so much for sending this out. It must be like drinking water from a fire hydrant and yet you put together (with other’s input) a moving description of processes rooted in “being.”
Thank you!
Alia Nur/Mary Catherine Casey