World Religion Day
Today is the third sunday in January. The Regina MultiFaith Foruum sponsored a program that took place at the Beth Jacob Synagogue in Regina. The Program celebrated World Religion Day.
It was a simple program. The master of ceremonies welcomed the 150 or so people and then allowed representatives from a number of different faith groups to present a prayer. Bahai, Christian, Islam, Jainism, Jewish, Hindu, etc. representatives each spoke a prayer - often in their own language. The theme of a single creator, creating a single type of humanity, permeated the prayers. There are many different languages, skin colors, etc. but there is only one type of human spirit - we are really all the same.
World Religion Day was suggested by the Bahai community over 50 years ago to:
"foster the establishment of interfaith understanding and harmony by emphasizing the common denominators underlying all religions. The message of World Religion Day is that, mankind, which has stemmed from one origin, must now strive towards the reconciliation of that which has been split up. Human unity and true equality depend not on past origins, but on future goals, on what we are becoming and whither we are going. The prime cause of age-old conflict between man and man has been the absence of one ethical belief, a single spiritual standard – one moral code.
The history of man's cultures and civilizations is the history of his religions. Nothing has such an integrating effect as the bond of common Faith. The history of religion shows that all religions had this unifying power – the power to instill in the hearts and minds of their adherents the fundamental verities, the vital spiritual standards, and thus establish a unity of conscience for motivating man towards founding great cultures and civilizations.
Thus, through World Religion Day observances, dedicated towards encouraging the leaders and followers of every religion to acknowledge the similarities in each of our sacred Faiths, a unified approach to the changes that confront humanity can be agreed upon and then applied on an ever-expanding scale to permeate the very psyche of mankind, so that it can be made to see the whole earth as a single country and humanity its citizenry."
It was a simple program. The master of ceremonies welcomed the 150 or so people and then allowed representatives from a number of different faith groups to present a prayer. Bahai, Christian, Islam, Jainism, Jewish, Hindu, etc. representatives each spoke a prayer - often in their own language. The theme of a single creator, creating a single type of humanity, permeated the prayers. There are many different languages, skin colors, etc. but there is only one type of human spirit - we are really all the same.
World Religion Day was suggested by the Bahai community over 50 years ago to:
"foster the establishment of interfaith understanding and harmony by emphasizing the common denominators underlying all religions. The message of World Religion Day is that, mankind, which has stemmed from one origin, must now strive towards the reconciliation of that which has been split up. Human unity and true equality depend not on past origins, but on future goals, on what we are becoming and whither we are going. The prime cause of age-old conflict between man and man has been the absence of one ethical belief, a single spiritual standard – one moral code.
The history of man's cultures and civilizations is the history of his religions. Nothing has such an integrating effect as the bond of common Faith. The history of religion shows that all religions had this unifying power – the power to instill in the hearts and minds of their adherents the fundamental verities, the vital spiritual standards, and thus establish a unity of conscience for motivating man towards founding great cultures and civilizations.
Thus, through World Religion Day observances, dedicated towards encouraging the leaders and followers of every religion to acknowledge the similarities in each of our sacred Faiths, a unified approach to the changes that confront humanity can be agreed upon and then applied on an ever-expanding scale to permeate the very psyche of mankind, so that it can be made to see the whole earth as a single country and humanity its citizenry."
Labels: Multifaith, Religion
posted by Cyril Kesten at 9:59 PM
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