Academia, Religion, Conflict and Peace .... at Harvard

From the editor/blogger:-

I do get lost in the internet from time to time. By that I mean that I discover a marvellous site and explore it and what it leads to and, afterwards, I can't recall how I got there in the first place.  Such it has been this morning and I have finished up - here in Australia - getting enrolled in a Religious Studies course at Harvard in the USA.

I have a Bachelor's degree from the University of Queensland here in Australia which includes a major in Religious Studies.  Here is what decided me to plunge into this Harvard Course.  It is/was the sales pitch of Professor Diane Moore of Harvard University that spurred me on to enrol in this course together with the angle it is taking - as well as the space and place of religions to-day.

I also think that the description given by Professor Moore will give me a sound basis for updating my knowledge of the place of religion in the world as it is to-day. The world - and its people and its social and ecological milieu - is not an easy creation to get one's head around - however, a sound overview of religion together with my background in sociology and politics should help me to come to a reasonable assessment of the world as it is to-day.

I would love to hear from readers of this blog. Would you be interested in venturing into the academic world of Religious Studies? Professor Moore's course would be a good start, a way of dipping one's toes in the water.  The course costs $50 - and, of course, this is in $US so you would need to check out the rate of exchange in your own country. You can opt for a verification certificate at the end of the course.  

Freedom and Peace - Is there a conflict?

Talking about
Freedom & Peace
and
Is there a conflict?

Saturday 5 August 2017
3pm to 5pm
The Victoria Room
Queen Victoria Women's Centre
210 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne.

Community of the Cross of Nails - Eastern European Conference in Sibiu, Romania

Dear Readers,

if you go to this link you will find a post on this blog about the Community of the Cross of Nails.

Currently, the CCN Eastern Europe Conference is underway.

The conference is taking place in the beautiful old Romanian city of Sibiu. Once upon a long ago, Sibiu was the capital of the Principality of Transylvania. For more on its history, please go here.

For more about the Community of the Cross of Nails, please go here

CULTURAL INFUSION and UNITED RELIGIONS INITIATIVE IN AUSTRALIA CO-OPERATE IN PRESENTING AN AFTERNOON TO CONSIDER PEACE, FAITH AND SOLVING CONFLICT

Peace, Faith and Solving Conflict: Cultural Infusion

From February 20, 2016 17:03 until February 20, 2017 20:00

• 
  
   At Cultural Infusion Centre, Collingwood College Theatre 
• (entrance from Campbell street), 49 Vere St. Collingwood, VIC 3066 AU

Cultural Infusion in conjunction with United Religions Initiative invites you to:

Peace, Faith and Solving Conflict

Date: Saturday 20 February 2016  Time: 5:02pm

Location: Cultural Infusion Centre, Collingwood College Theatre (entrance from Campbell street), 49 Vere St. Collingwood, VIC 3066 AU

Cultural Infusion’s Culture Talks are free events that present great speakers and new ideas on the broad topic of Australia’s cultural life. Each Culture Talk features prominent speakers discussing their field of expertise, followed by a Q&A session with the audience. Sometimes funny, sometimes controversial, and always thought-provoking, the Culture Talk series aims to explore the importance of culture and its effect on the world.

Guest Speakers:

• Rev. Victor Kazanjian (Global Director United Religions Initiative): Rev. Victor H. Kazanijian, Jr. is the Executive Director of the United Religions Initiative (URI). His work at Wellesley College in the United States is widely recognised as the catalyst in the movement to include religion and spirituality as core issues in higher education. With decades of experience in community organising around the world, Victor specialises in interfaith dialogue, conflict transformation and peace building, and holds a Master of Divinity degree from the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is a graduate of Harvard University.
• Prof. Gary Bouma (UNESCO): Professor Bouma holds the UNESCO Chair in Intercultural and Inter-religious Relations – Asia Pacific, and is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Monash University. He works to promote communication and respect between religious communities. His research in the sociology of religion examines religious diversity in multicultural societies as a content for religion and public policy.

 Refreshments provided.

Cultural Infusion is a social enterprise that works with schools, youth, and the arts to promote cultural harmony for a more cohesive and richer society. Cultural Infusion believes that culture is an enabler and driver of sustainability and quality education, an eradicator of poverty and a key to social cohesion and inclusion.

Cultural Infusion achieves its goals through the delivery of a range of sustainable arts and engagement programs including a range of innovative digital interactive media targeted to schools, youth and communities. Cultural Infusion has delivered a range of creative services, products and ongoing programs to Azerbaijan, Brazil, Cambodia, Egypt, India, US, South Africa, China, Pakistan, the UK, the Philippines, Portugal and throughout Australia. Cultural Infusion has been a winner of more than 15 international awards including the United Nations Alliance of Civilization Intercultural Innovation Award (UNAoC) and developed the winning slogan “Diversified We Grow” for the UNAoC “Do One Thing for Diversity and Inclusiveness” campaign. Cultural Infusion has produced intercultural experiences at major events for organisations such as the United Nations, Commonwealth Games and the Parliament of the World’s Religions.

Headquartered in San Francisco, the United Religions Initiative (URI) is the world’s largest grassroots interfaith peacebuilding network comprised of over 700 member organisations operating in 92 countries. URI brings people of different faiths and cultures together to promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence and to create cultures of peace, justice and healing. URI members work to transcend religious and cultural differences to create inclusive, on the ground solutions to critical issues facing their communities and in Australia work to foster cross-cultural understanding through the arts, education, and interfaith dialogue.

Women's Federation for World Peace --- Bridge of Peace sisterhood event - Saturday 22 February, Clayton Community Centre Theatrette

Dealing with the past: the importance of documents, archives in seeking justice, reconciliation and conflict resolution

Importance of documentation and archives in dealing with the past

Elisabeth Baumgartner of the Swiss Peace Foundation speaking on “Dealing with the past” project at a WCC Archives event in Geneva.

22 January 2014

In a talk organized by the Archives of the World Council of Churches (WCC), Elisabeth Baumgartner, a Swiss lawyer and head of the project “Dealing with the Past” at the Swiss Peace Foundation (swisspeace), stressed the importance of archives and documentation in dealing with the past, which she said is pertinent to the institutional and informal mechanisms seeking justice, reconciliation and conflict resolution.

Baumgartner addressed the audience of members of local and international community in Geneva, involved with the work of archives, international affairs and peace-building.

Baumgartner’s talk, held on 20 January at the Ecumenical Centre in Geneva, Switzerland, was organized by the Forum of the Archivists in Geneva in collaboration with the WCC Archives.

Speaking on the issue of “Archives and Dealing with the Past”, access to information and the “right to know”, Baumgartner said that national and international mechanisms dealing with the past, such as investigations, truth commissions and tribunals, have a major responsibility in managing and maintaining the archives containing information regarding human rights violations.

She added that they need to “find a balance between information access and data protection in regard to witnesses and should be really aware of the importance of the archives for a society in a process of transition.”
At the event, Baumgartner also shared examples from East-Timor, Chile, Croatia, Guatemala, Argentina, the Philippines and South Africa on how archives remain sensitive and in danger so far as their use in mechanisms searching for truth and justice.

Baumgartner explained that archives useful for the investigation of human rights violations are to be found not only in the obvious institutions such as the courts, army and police, but also in hospitals, churches and human rights organizations. Therefore, she said that the “unrestricted access of such information to transitional justice mechanisms like tribunals and truth commissions is important.”

Another aspect, she continued, is the preservation, protection, maintenance of and access to archives created by such mechanisms. They constitute an “important legacy which should be made available to the societies” concerned with the human rights violations.

Baumgartner’s presentation particularly noted that the archives are essential to strengthen democratic institutions and law-based state structures after a period of deep crisis.

Baumgartner also introduced to her audience the project “Archives and Dealing with the Past”. The project is a joint initiative of the Swiss Federal Archives, the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and the Swiss Peace Foundation, and it provides support to actors in the field of transitional justice related to the protection, preservation and management of human rights archives.

WCC Library and Archives

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, by the end of 2012 the WCC had 345 member churches representing more than 500 million Christians from Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other traditions in over 110 countries. The WCC works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is the Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway.

Religion, women and peacemaking in Liberia

Sharing Art & Religiosity in Surakarta (Solo), Indonesia

I know this is short notice - 

but some readers may be in Indonesia or on the way there. 

~~~~~

Center for Language Development, 

State Institute of Islamic Studies (IAIN) Surakarta

and

Padepokan Lemah Putih

cooperatively present

SHARING ART & RELIGIOSITY

Human, Nature and God

to commemorate the 21st Anniversary of IAIN Surakarta

7 to 9 September 2013

at Institut Agama Islam Negeri Surakarta

Jalan Pandawa, Pucangan, Kartasura, Central Java, Indonesia