UK Bahá’ís attend Parliament of the World’s Religions.

A delegation of Bahá’ís from the United Kingdom were among 8000 participants from 75 countries who attended the 2004 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Barcelona. The Parliament, a major interfaith conference, saw many Bahá’ís making presentations in their capacity as representatives of various interfaith and academic organizations.

More than 20 Bahá’ís were involved in panel discussions, speeches or other events at the Parliament, and another 80 Bahá’ís attended as participants, coming from more than a dozen countries.

Dr Moojan Momen, a scholar from Bedfordshire, who gave a well-attended talk at the Parliament on ‘The Bahá’í Theological Basis of Interreligious Dialogue,’ noted that Bahá’ís are able to contribute particularly well to interfaith dialogue because of a belief system that defuses those elements of religion that tend to produce conflict. In speeches and discussions, religious leaders and activists from virtually every religious tradition repeatedly called for tolerance, and recognition of human interdependence and the common spirit in all religions.

Taking the theme, Pathways to Peace, the 2004 Parliament was organized by three bodies: the Chicago-based Council for the Parliament of the World’s Religions, the UNESCO Centre of Catalonia, and the Forum Barcelona 2004.

The Parliament is the third such gathering since 1993, when some 8,000 people from all religions came together in Chicago to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the World’s Parliament of Religions, which was held there in 1893 and was the start of the movement for interreligious dialogue. The 1893 event was also the first time that the Bahá’í faith was mentioned in a public talk in the Western Hemisphere.

Among other British Bahá’í representatives at the Parliament were Mrs Maureen Sier, a member of the Bahá’í Council for Scotland, Dr Beman Khosravi from Belfast representing the Northern Ireland Inter Faith Forum, and Mr Robert Bennett from Shetland who said, “It was truly a privilege to have been there and deeply enriching.”

BWNS/RW

Lally Lucretia Warren addressing the 2004 Parliament of World's Religions