Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1999. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
PRNewswire - November 4, 1999
The Dec. 1-8 event is expected to draw some 6,000 people from around the globe to Cape Town, South Africa's 'showcase city.' The first activity will be held in Cape Town's Company Gardens. At about 10 a.m., volunteers dressed in white will unfold sections of the AIDS Memorial Quilt during a World AIDS Day ceremony for a nation where AIDS is pandemic.
Following the ceremony, Parliament participants will process from Company Gardens to the city's District Six. In the attire of their respective cultures and religions, they will create a moving mosaic through the streets of Cape Town.
District Six is a largely vacant area, once home to a mixed-race community of 60,000 residents. Forcibly evicted by apartheid legislation, residents saw their houses and shops bulldozed to the ground. Many of these emigrants -- who still consider District Six their real home -- will participate in Parliament ceremonies commemorating both the dispossessed around the world and the triumph of the human spirit.
That afternoon, drums will call participants to the Good Hope Center for the opening plenary session of the Parliament of the World's Religions. There, national and municipal officials will welcome the audience of religious leaders, scholars, activists and others.
For the next seven days, participants will sample an array of some 700 presentations, seminars, workshops and performances representing the full spectrum of humanity and its challenges. Nobel laureates Nelson Mandala and Northern Ireland's Mairead Corrigan Maguire and Nobel nominee Maha Ghosananda, Supreme Patriarch of Cambodian Buddhism, are among those who will share their wisdom.
Each evening session will celebrate Gifts of Service designed to transform the human condition. The Parliament Assembly will plan model projects to illustrate how the religious and spiritual community can work with other spheres of influence to create a more sustainable future in the new millennium.
On Wednesday, 8 December, after the closing plenary highlighted by a keynote address from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the sound of drums will lead people back to District Six for final blessings and a musical celebration.
SOURCE Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions
CONTACT: Mim Neal, of CPWR, 312-629-2990, or e-mail mimneal@cpwr.org/
Web Site: http://www.cpwr.org /
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