Throughout the Parliament of World Religions conference, if one had been asked to spot me in the crowd, I can assure you it would not have been that difficult. Even within the sea of seven thousand individuals, all with an intense fiery passion to take up interfaith dialogue and speak up about religious injustices, I awkwardly stood out amongst the crowd as I had my phone in one hand and digital camera in the other — walking around as if my spirit had been taken over by a wide-eyed, innocently disoriented penguin who hoped to take snapshots of the colourful bustle of a conference that could not compare to the bleak ice and snow called Antarctica. This mish mash of an artwork that stands before you today is a culmination of all that I captured during this year’s Parliament of World Religions. Being the indecisive individual that I am, rather than choosing one photo or one object to capture my reflections on the conference, all the photos I had taken over the course of what felt like a long, and yet contrastingly short week were instead fully encompassed into one, unifying canvas. Long because I learned 2 years worth of knowledge within 5 days, and yet short because out of the 10 years worth of knowledge I learned, I had yet to experience the 100 more that were available to me in such an inspiring, groundbreaking, & humbling environment.
I must clarify that this photo collage was not simply made with my indecisiveness in mind. Rather, I took on such a form of art because it perfectly describes much of what I took away from this year’s conference. In this very moment, numerous genocides are occurring — many of which have often gone unnoticed. As we look to these genocides and acts of oppression, what is interesting to find is how much religion and spirituality are intertwined in these mass conflicts. As this year’s theme of the Parliament of World Religions revolved around religions, freedom, and human rights, it was both mind-blowing and likewise heartbreaking to hear of the many, many, many lived experiences of individuals and religious communities both perpetrating and also facing political oppression. From the Rohingya crisis, the Uyghur genocide, the persecution of Ahmadis, and more, just as a singular photo of a person or scene tells a single story, each single seminar and talk and dance and song at the conference told an individual story about beautiful, but often underrepresented peoples.
And yet, just as there were many of these individual stories, each just as powerful as the next, a common theme arose - the power of interfaith dialogue, of unity, of pluralism, of coming together to make change. Religious and spiritual communities on their own can be strong — but just imagine the strength they could wield should millions of individuals from other faith communities provide them with back-end support to continue moving forward. By raising awareness, by reaching “beyond the bubble,” as POWR’s Executive Director Rev. Stephen Avino put it eloquently, we as individuals and we as a collective can be so much more powerful to take on and support the human rights of many. Each photo in this collage is a unique experience and memory that cannot be contrasted to another, just as no faith or the struggles of a faith community can be devalued. Yet alas, by putting all these photos together — or by putting our heads together to recognize the importance of interfaith dialogue and support other faith communities to have a more just platform to speak on — a new, unique, yet equally beautiful image of something else can come about — an interfaith community, an interfaith network, and an interfaith capacity to take on the many injustices that we will fight head on with interfaith strength.
