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Report on the 1999 Parliament of the World's Religions
Dec.1-8.1999

After the amazingly successful 100th anniversary of the original 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions was held in Chicago in 1993, it was decided to organize future sessions of the Parliament every 5-6 years at various international sites. Thus it was that Cape Town, South Africa was selected as the host of the 1999 Parliament.
Jointly organized by an International Interreligious Planning Committee, the Directors and staff of the Chicago-based Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions, and the African Advisory Committee, the Cape Town Parliament events were spread over several venues in the central area of the city, including the University of Cape Town, Cape Technikon, Good Hope Centre, the Civic Centre, and the old Cape Town City Hall.
The program began on December 1st with an opening ceremony at Company Gardens, speeches by Government Ministers and blessings from religious representatives, followed by a procession of religious representatives through central Cape Town.　I attended this conference as the International Shinto Fpimdatopms's representative.
The first of many Plenary Sessions of the Parliament was held that afternoon in a large auditorium of the Good Hope Centre. Speakers were drawn from the Parliament Committees, our South African hosts, and various religious bodies. Every evening during the Parliament, some sort of entertainment or talk was offered at the same venue, the highest audience attendances being for former South African President Nelson Mandela's welcoming speech on Sunday evening (Dec. 5th) and for H.H. the Dalai Lama's talk at the final Plenary gathering on December 8th.
Adjacent to the auditorium in the Good Hope Centre were several large rooms in which booths were set up and occupied by various international and local organizations, such as the World Peace Prayer Society, the Interfaith Center of New York, etc., including two Shinto-related organizations, Shinji Shumei Kai and Sukyo Mahikari. These last two groups used their space for distributing literature and giving of Divine Light.
From December 2-8, performances, seminars, lectures and workshops on various topics were scheduled in classrooms of the Cape Technikon complex every morning and every afternoon. A very large program book had been printed to guide attendees through hundreds of choices. At any given hour, there were about 30 different presentations one could attend. Each morning I attended a symposium entitled "Native American Religious Freedom" in which Dr. Huston Smith, the world famous authority on the history of religions, interviewed various Native American elders on issues involving their traditional practice of religion. Before and after the sessions, I was able to meet participants such as Walter Echo-Hawk (Pawnee Nation), Winona LaDuke (Anishinaabeg Nation), and Charlotte Black Elk (Oglala Lakota Nation).

The Shinto presentation, "The Foundations of Shinto," was scheduled for Thursday, December 2nd from 3-3:45 pm. I had been requested to participate in this session together with Rev. Munemichi Kurozumi, but when I arrived in Cape Town and received my program book, although the session was listed, my own name was not. I immediately contacted Mr. Jim Kenney, who had originally requested my participation, and he assured me that it must have been an oversight and perhaps my name was in an updated program insert, and to speak with Rev. Kurozumi about it. However, my name was not in the handout either, and when I found Rev. Kurozumi just prior to the talk, he seemed to not know about my participation and emphasized that he had prepared his own material and slides for the talk and would be doing it alone (with the help of his assistants). I was quite disappointed, but there was nothing to be done, and no way to have an additional lecture included in the program. I therefore attended Rev. Kurozumi's talk, which was quite excellent and he was kind enough to introduce me and another Shinto representative from Shinji Shumei Kai towards the end of his presentation. About 40 people were in attendance and I spoke to as many as I could when it was over.
In addition to Rev. Kurozumi and myself, other Shinto organizations attending the Parliament were Oomoto, Shinji Shumei Kai, and Sukyo Mahikari. I met Rev. Masato Deguchi and Mr. Yano, the Oomoto delegates, on the early morning (6:30 am) of December 5th, as we all took part in a Peace Pole Ceremony organized by the World Peace Prayer Society on Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners had been incarcerated. About 150 persons participated in this event, including all the staff of the Interfaith Center of New York (Dean Morton, Bawa Jain, etc.), Father Mizzi from Assisi, Ven. Mahaghosananda of Cambodia, and the former mayor of Cape Town, and staff of URI, which co-sponsored the event. I sat with Rev. Deguchi in the ferry which took us to the island, and he asked about Mr. Yoshimi Umeda, our Director-General, and what the ISF was doing. I didn't see them much after that and Oomoto did not have any presentations that I know of.
The Shinji Shumei Kai brought about 180 people from their Japan Headquarters and foreign branches, and participated in many of the panels, as well as performing Taiko drumming several times, and Japanese dance in Kimono. They were surprized to learn about the ISF and a number were interested in our programs. The Sukyo Mahikari group appeared to all be local to South Africa (mostly from Durban), and confined their activities to giving Divine Light from their booth.
The last Japanese delegate was Mr. Osamu Yoshida, founder of the Missouri Zen Center, who offered Zazen sessions each morning (about 10 people attending), and gave two lectures on Zen practice and philosophy.
Another delegate who I spent some time with was Dharma Master Hsin Tao of Taiwan, founder of the WRM development foundation with branches in Taipei and New York. He is building a very large Museum of World Religions in Taiwan and has been successful in having the assistance of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard in his project (we have sent them our ISF materials). He would be grateful for any assistance we might offer.
During the final three days of the Parliament, a select Assembly of religious leaders and scholars were invited to meet in morning and afternoon session at a separate location (in the Civic Centre) to discuss "The Call" document and practical means of implementing it. I was also invited to participate in this group, and when I arrived on the first morning, was surprized to find that I was also requested to act as "Convenor" for my assigned table, which entailed keeping everyone to the task at hand and making sure that our work was completed. My table included Father Luis Dolan (New York) in the morning session, and the Chief Rabbi of South Africa in the afternoon, so I felt quite honored to be in that position. Discussion went on for two days. On the third and final day, "gifts" of world service were offered by various representatives, and HH the Dalai Lama joined us and gave a short talk. This was followed by a luncheon hosted by the city of Cape Town and its mayor, and the Dalai Lama also attended. I happened to sit with Rev. Nakagaki (of the Jodo Shinshu Church of NY) who warmly accepted Mr. Umedam last year when we visited with him.
I met many of the Assembly delegates and informed them about the ISF. One contact which may be very fruitful in the future is Mr. Satish Kumar, founder and editor of "Resurgence Magazine" in the UK. He would like to do a 2000 word article on "Shintoism and Nature" in a coming issue and also would like to offer a three week course on Shinto and ecology at Schumacher College in England. When I attended the SOAS conference, I spoke briefly to Prof. Grapard about this possibility, and he was interested in both the article and perhaps doing a course, so I will put them in touch with each other. (Satish Kumar is a former Jain monk, who has a world-wide reputation in ecology.)
Other participants in the Assembly who are known to us were Bishop Swing of California, Dr. Hans Kung of Germany, and Dean Morton and Bawa Jain of New York.
The final plenary session of the Parliament featured HH the Dalai Lama's speech on the afternoon of December 8th.
During the Parliament, I had the opportunity to meet many international representatives, give them our newsletter, Shinto Essay Competition information, and other printed materials. Hopefully this will bring the ISF to the attention of many who would not otherwise have known of our existence.

Paul H. Sherbow, ISF NY Center

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