Pluralism Project Participates in World Parliament of Religions at Fenway High School

Date: 

Friday, March 26, 2010 (All day)

Location: 

174 Ipswich Street, Boston, MA 02215
On Friday, March 26, 2010, fifteen representatives of various religious traditions participated in a panel discussion at the World Parliament of Religions day at Fenway High School in Boston. The panelists included Pluralism Project Research Associate Zachary Ugolnik (Eastern Orthodox); Alex Kern (Quaker), director of Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries; Harpreet Singh (Sikh), Harvard PhD student; and Rev. Hyunoh Kim of the Won-Buddhist Temple in Somerville. For the first part of the day, each of the representatives met with students who had studied their respective traditions in their coursework. In a second eighty-minute session, representatives conversed with small group of students that changed every ten minutes in an exercise called “Speed Faithing.” Each representative provided an insider’s introduction to his or her faith and answered students’ questions on the history, beliefs, and practices of that tradition. The event concluded with an assembly where participants spoke briefly on how their tradition responds to issues of social justice. Susanna Hall, a Fenway High School Humanities Team Teacher and a long-time friend of the Pluralism Project, was instrumental in organizing the event.