Native American Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation, Chief Oren Lyons will be a keynote speaker at the fifth global conference organized by the Chicago-based Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions in Melbourne, Australia in December. The week long conference titled Make a World of Difference: Hearing Each Other, Healing the Earth, will be the world's largest inter-faith gathering, offering the global religious and spiritual communities and their leaders a forum to discuss and explore peace, diversity and sustainability in the context of inter-religious understanding and cooperation.
There are more than 500 programs scheduled throughout the seven days, including lectures, dialogues, workshops, symposia, performances and exhibits.
Major speakers for this year's Parliament comprise a selection of pre-eminent worldwide spiritual leaders, including:
* Fr. Laurence Freeman, Director of The World Community for Christian Meditation, UK
* His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhist Leader, India
* Chief Oren Lyons, Native American Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation, USA
* Professor Joy Murphy Wandin, Senior Aboriginal Woman of the Wurundjeri People, Australia
* Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, Political Scientist and Founder of JUST, Malaysia
* Rev. Dr. Ishmael Noko, General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation and Convenor of the Inter-Faith Action for Peace in Africa
* Rev. Dr. Shanta D. Premawardhana, Director of Inter-religious Dialogue and Cooperation, World Council of Churches, Switzerland
* Rabbi David Rosen, Chairman of International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations, Israel
* His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Spiritual Leader of The Art of Living Foundation, India
* Dr. Karan Singh, Member of Parliament, Former Minister for Education and Culture, India
* Dr. M. Din Syamsuddin, President of Muhammadiyah, Indonesia
"There couldn't be a more important time for the world's religious and spiritual leaders to work together for a just, peaceful and harmonious society," said Rev. Dirk Ficca, Executive Director, Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions.
"The Parliament will allow thousands of participants to engage worldwide religious, spiritual, secular, environmental, business and educational leaders in an inter-religious, civil and cross-cultural dialogue on important local, national and global issues, including understanding and respecting diversity, peace and Indigenous reconciliation."
Since 1993, Parliament of World's Religions has convened every five years in a major international city -- Chicago (1993), Cape Town (1999) and Barcelona (2003).
The Parliament of the World's Religions 2009 will take place at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, designed to achieve the first six green star environmental rating, making it one of the greenest convention centres in the world and is supported by the State Government of Victoria, the Commonwealth Government of Australia and the City of Melbourne, as well as individual, religious and corporate donors.
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