International Religious News Updates (Fourth Week of May 2018)
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Dubai : Dubai Gurudwara hosts Iftar
Recently more than 100 people gathered in Gurudwara Dubai for Iftar to promote interfaith religious harmony. Promoting religious harmony and bringing in different communities closer, the Sikh community in Dubai organised an inter-faith Iftar party. Hosted at the Guru Nanak Darbar Sikh temple in Dubai, people from all faiths joined in for the fast-breaking ritual during the holy month of Ramzan. Senior members of the Sikh, Christian, Baha’i and Hindu communities shared a meal with Muslim brothers and sisters to end their fast in a truly ceremonial manner.
Gurudwara Dubai has been hosting Iftar get-togethers annually since 2013 and has welcomed not only Muslims, but also communities from neighbouring churches. It was a wonderful scene seeing people of different nationalities and various faiths joined together and enjoying Iftar in celebration of Ramadan.
The event was attended by many dignitaries and diplomats. Among them were Minister for Climate Change and Environment Dr Thani Bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Indian Consul General Vipul, and US Consul General Paul Malik. Mirza Al Sayegh, director of the Office of Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, was also present. Dr Omar Al-Muthanna, CEO of Licensing and Monitoring Sector at Community Development Authority, also attended the event. Other special guests were Abdul Hadi of Al Manar Islamic Center, Fr Mina Hanna of Coptic Church Dubai and Fr Tim Heanney of Christ Church Jebel Ali.
Messages of friendship and acceptance were given during the speeches and Maghrib prayers were held inside the Gurudwara premises.
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Vatican : Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos died at 88 on Friday
Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, a vigorous conservative voice in the Vatican and influential figure in the Latin American church who drew attention for seemingly playing down the church’s sexual abuse scandal, died on Friday in Rome. He was 88. His death was announced by the Vatican, which quoted Pope Francis as calling him a “well-deserving servant of the Gospel.”
In 1999, shortly after he was proclaimed a cardinal by Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Castrillón was elegized in a Colombian magazine by Gabriel García Márquez, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist and a fellow countryman, as a “rustic man with the profile of an eagle” and “an unpredictable cross between popular Latin American culture and Renaissance reserve.”
Cardinal Castrillón, who spoke eight languages and had a doctorate in canon law, was nothing short of controversial — particularly while he served in Rome as prefect for the Congregation for the Clergy, from 1996 to 2006, and as president of the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei” from 2000 to 2009.
In Rome, Cardinal Castrillón advocated for the poor but opposed the arrogation of Christian theology to undergird leftist guerrilla movements in Latin America; sought to reconcile conservative Roman Catholics with the Holy See; and counseled empathy for priests accused of sexual abuse.
When Cardinal Castrillón retired later that year, shortly after he turned 80, the pope subordinated the Pontifical Commission under the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, apparently in response to a backlash over the bishops’ reinstatement. Dario del Nino Jesus Castrillón Hoyos was born on July 4, 1929 in Medellín, Colombia, to Manuel Castrillón Castrillón and Maria Hoyos Salas.
He studied in local seminaries and received a doctorate in canon law at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1952, named coadjutor bishop of Pereira by Pope Paul VI in 1971, head of the diocese five years later and archbishop of Bucaramanga, in north-central Colombia, in 1992.
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Pakistan : Sikh Community hosts Iftar for Muslims at the ancient Gurudwara
The Sikh community hosted an Iftar dinner for the Muslims at the ancient Gurudwara Baabey Di Beri here on Wednesday. On the occasion, Gurudwara Caretaker Sardar Jaskaran Singh said that the aim of holding the event was to promote interfaith harmony.
Local Sikh community leader Sardar Jaskaran Singh said that every religion condemns terrorism and killings of human being in the world. He said every religion gives the lesson of love, peace, affection, tolerance, unity, brotherhood and social and religious harmony.
Jaskaran Singh said that the minorities enjoyed complete religious freedom in Pakistan and the government was making sincere efforts to protect them their basic rights
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Iftar party in USA
A similar inter-faith Iftar gathering was hosted by UAE Ambassador to the US, Yousef Al Otaiba, at the UAE Embassy in Washington, DC. Over 100 religious, community and government leaders attended the event.
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England : Benedictine monastery celebrates 1,000 years of its history
Buckfast abbey, in Devon, England, was founded in 1018. Celebrations are underway to marks its millennial anniversary. Pope Francis’ representative takes part in one celebration today. Their Tonic Wine has gladdened people’s hearts since 1890. During the 20th century their particular strain of bees came to be favoured by beekeepers all over the world. But the Benedictine monks of Buckfast Abbey can trace their history all the way back to 1018, making this year their millennial anniversary.
On Thursday 24th May, Cardinal Anders Arborelius of Sweden joins the monks at Buckfast Abbey in Devon, England for their millennial celebration. Cardinal Arborelius was chosen by Pope Francis as his representative for the occasion, and the entire episcopal hierarchy of the Catholic Church in England has been invited. This is only one of several events scheduled to mark the anniversary of one of England’s most historic monasteries. In so doing, they recall a history intimately intertwined with that of England, the Catholic Church and monasticism.
History
The first Benedictine monastery was founded near the site of today’s monastery in 1018, although its precise location has been lost to history. At the time of its foundation, Cnut the Great was king of Denmark, England and Norway, and the Normans had yet to conquer the British Isles. Almost half a century earlier the Council of Winchester had spearheaded the reform of monastic life in England after massive decline.
In 1147 Buckfast became a Cistercian abbey, implementing the austere life of the recently established Order, resulting in a complete transformation of the buildings of the monastery themselves.
The Abbey
The abbey increased in size and wealth through subsequent centuries, making it a perfect target for King Henry VIII’s campaigns, resulting in the dissolution of Buckfast in 1539 along with the moving of its wealth to the Tower of London. After more than three centuries without monks, it would take only an advert in The Tablet for monastic life to return to Buckfast in 1881. Six weeks after the advert appeared, Benedictine monks from France moved in, the forebears of the present-day monks. When the French monks arrived, it was on the basis of the Cistercian foundations that they built the new monastery, effectively reconstructing the Cistercian abbey
The Abbey today
The Buckfast monks live a life rooted in the Benedictine motto of ora et labora. They rise at 5.30 in the morning for the celebration of various liturgies including Mass. During the day, the monks will probably not find work wanting, seeing that they have guest quarters, a retreat centre, a conference centre and a large garden to be attended to. At midday and in the late afternoon they assemble again for prayer. Daily recitation of Night Prayer allows the monks to pray it from memory, in a dark chapel.
Their prayer and contemplation roots and gives purpose to their work, and although the monks of Buckfast live separated from the world they have demonstrated a capacity of drawing the world to themselves – for 1,000 years.
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Pakistan: Punjab government in Pakistan sanctions Rs20 million for Krishna Temple
To accommodate more Hindu worshippers on festivals and religious events, the Punjab government in Pakistan sanctioned Rs 20 million to expand and renovate the only functioning Krishna temple.
The temple was built in 1897 in twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The report states that very soon the temple will get a makeover. Till now two prayers a day are performed, morning and evening.
Deputy Administrator at Evacuee Trust Property Board, Mohammad Asif said, “The government has released Rs 20 million to reconstruct the temple at the request of a member of provincial assembly,” reported The Tribune
He even added that concerned officials have already visited the temple site and sealed the main room where the diety is. “Once reconstructed, the temple will be able to accommodate more people.”
The temple was built by Kanji Mal and Ujagar Mal Ram Rachpal to serve people of Hindu community residing in the nearby area.
Funds for the expansion came after residents of nearby areas demanded expansion. Following the announcement, there was a lot of discussion on this topic on Twitter. While some said, “Pakistan is renovating Krishna mandir & our Indian GOVT is demolishing masjid to construct mandir & place of namaz offered occasionally is considered occupation.”
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Australia : Giant Jade Buddha arrives home after 9-year world tour
After almost a decade-long journey around the world, a giant Buddha carved from a single piece of jade has arrived home at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion, near Bendigo, Australia. The Buddha was carved from a massive high-quality jade boulder unearthed in Canada in 2000.
The Jade Buddha of Universal Peace was carved from an 18-tonne boulder discovered in Yukon, Canada in 2000. Ian Green, chairman of the Great Stupa, purchased part of the boulder in 2003 after his main teacher, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, told him the nephrite jade rock would become “a holy object to offer the world.”
Crafters in Thailand then spent five years cutting and shaping the jade with diamond saws and chisels before sending the Buddha on a world-wide fundraising and awareness tour.
Originally scheduled for six months, the tour was extended to nine years due to the Jade Buddha’s popularity. While on tour, it was viewed by an estimated 11.5 million people. After visiting 125 cities and 21 countries, the Buddha arrived at Great Stupa last week — just in time for the monastery’s Illumin8 Festival, an annual light celebration of peace and harmony. “To see it completed and in the place designed to have it on display, it’s like a dream,” Green told the Bendigo Advertiser.
A forklift and a crane were required to position the four-tonne Jade Buddha on an alabaster throne inside the Great Stupa. Costing $20 million to build, the Great Stupa is the largest stupa in the Western world at 50 meters high and 50 meters wide.
A smaller statue of Green Tara, the female embodiment of the Buddha, was carved from an offcut of the same boulder. The statue has been traveling alongside the Jade Buddha, and also now rests in the Great Stupa. The whole project, from purchasing the boulder to arriving in Bendigo, has taken 15 years to complete.
Compiled by : Yashoda Jayadev (yashodajayadev@yahoo.com)
