CORE GROUP INVITEES

**List not comprehensive
**Not all participants are confirmed

The 2012 Charter Dialogues will revolve around a Core Group, featuring key members of the International Interreligious Peace Council and their peers from the world’s religious and spiritual communities in 20 countries. Additional invitees will draw upon the expertise of secular institutions, including in addition to religion: government, commerce, education, the arts, science, intergovernmental agencies, and civil society. Attention to diversity of religion, culture, gender, and nationality has been a primary driver in the invitational process.

 

Bangladesh, USA

Jamal Raman
Muslim Sufi interfaith minister

Belgium

The Honorable Silvia Costa
Commission on Culture and Education, Brussels

Yolande Iliano
Chairperson, Religions for Peace Europe

Miguel Mesquita de Cunha
Chair, 2014 PWR Brusslels Host Committee; advisor to EU policy, business, industry, climate change, health care

 

China

Hon. Florinda Chan
Secretary for Administration and Justice, Government of Macao, China

China, USA

Chungliang Al Huang
Tai Ji master, East-West culture, World Academy of Art and Science, Republic of China's Gold Medal of Education

Prof. Wei-ming Tu
Founder, Harvard-Yenching Center

 

Ghana

Bro. Ishmael Tetteh
Etherean Mission, Ghana

 

India

Swami Agnivesh
Chair, United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery

Dr. Vinu Aram
M.D., Past President WCRP, Director Shanti Ashram

HH Pujya Swami Chidananda Saraswati
President and spiritual head of the Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh, India, one of India's largest spiritual institutions

Vandana Shiva
Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy

Ireland, USA

Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB
Co-Chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women

 

Israel

Dean Naamah Kelman
Dean, Hebrew Union College, Jerusalem

Rabbi David Rosen,CBE,KSG
AJC International Director of Interreligious Affairs and Heilbrunn Institute for International Interreligious Understanding

Amy Seidel Marks
Baha’I World Center, Haifa, Israel; SA Co-Chair, 1999 Parliament of the World’s Religions South Africa

Levi Weiman-Kelman
Congregation Kehilat Kol Haneshama. Israeli Movement for Progressive Judaism; Rabbis for Human Rights; model for interreligious understanding, and healing in Jerusalem.

 

Italy

The Honorable Giuliano Amato
Former Prime Minister, Italy

Dr. Dimitrji Bregant
Director of Communications and International Relations, Focolare Movement Rome Headquarters

His Eminence Walter Cardinal Kasper
President, Pontifical Council for Ecumenism

His Eminence Gianfranco Cardinal Ravasi
President, Pontifical Council for Culture

His Eminence Jean Louis Cardinal Tauran
President, Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue

His Eminence Peter Kodwo Appiah Cardinal Turkson
President, Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace

Dr. Roberto Catalano
Director, Center for Interreligious Dialogue of the Focolare Movement

Minister Pasquale Ferrara
Director, Policy Planning, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Italy

The Honorable Lapo Pistelli
Member of Parliament, Foreign Affairs, Italy

Prof. Judy Povilus
Vice Rector, Sophia University, Rome Education, Globalization, Interreligious Dialogue

Prof. Alberto Tesi
Rector, University of Florence

 

Kenya

Dr. Hizkias Assefa
Founder, African Peacebuilding and Reconciliation Network (Nairobi, Kenya)

 

Kenya, United Kingdom

Bhai Sahib Mohinder Singh
Spiritual leader of Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha (UK, India, Kenya)

 

Korea, USA

Prof. Hyun-kyung Chung
Ecumenics and World Christianity, Union Theological School

 

Mexico

Rev. Gonzalo Ituarte Verduzco
Dominican Prior Provincial for Mexico

 

Saudi Arabia

Dr. Saleha Abedin
Director, Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs

 

Senegal

Aminata Touré

 

South Africa

Ela Gandhi
Former Parliamentarian, Republic of South Africa

Rev. Gordon Oliver
Chair, Cape Town Interfaith Initiative. South African Director, 1999 Parliament of the World's Religions

 

South Africa, USA

Imam A. Rashied Omar
Imam, Claremont Main Road Mosque, Cape Town, South Africa. SA Chair, 1999 Parliament of the World's Religions

 

Sri Lanka

Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne
Founder, Sarvodaya Movement Sri Lanka

Dr. Samya Charika Marasinghe
Freelance Human Rights and Child Rights Consultant and Honourary Founder
Director, Sarvodaya Legal Services Movement,
Trustee, Vishva Niketan International Peace and Meditation Centre

 

Switzerland, USA

Bro. David Steindl-Rast, OSB
Hermitage, author, teacher

 

Thailand

Ouyporn Khuankaew
Lead Trainer, International Women's Partnership for Peace and Justice

 

Tibet, India

His Holinss the Dalai Lama
Peace Councilor

Ven. Samdhong Rinpoche
Former Kalon Tripa (Prime Minister) of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile

Tibet, USA

Tenzin Tethong
The Dalai Lama Foundation, Committee of 100 for Tibet, Stanford University, tenure as Kalon Tripa Tibetan Admin.

 

Turkey

His All Holiness theEcumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I
Archbishop of Constantinople New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch.

 

United Kingdom

Rev. Marcus Braybrooke
President, World Congress of Faiths

Dr. Satish Kumar
Visiting Fellow, Schumacher College international Centre for Ecological Studies; Editor, "Resurgence" Journal

Dr. Kamran Mofid
Founder and Director, Globalization for the Common Good

Rev. Canon Alan Race
Editor-in-Chief, "Interreligious Insight"

UNITED KINGDOM, USA

Dr. Nahid Angha
Co-Director, International Association of Sufism

 

USA

Joan Borysenko
Medical Scientist; Clinical Psychologist; Co-founder, Mind/Body Clinic, Harvard Medical School; President, Mind/Body Health Sciences

Rinaldo Brutoco
President and CEO, World Business Academy

Jack Canfield
Author, trainer, motivational speaker

Dean Lawrence Carter
Dean of Martin Luther King, Jr. International Chapel

Rev. Michael Dowd
Evolutionary theologian, author

Rev. Charles Gibbs
Executive Director, United Religions Initiative

Jean Houston
Director, Foundation for Mind Research; Senior Consultant in Human Devlopment, United Nations; Founder, International Institute for Social Artistry

Sensei Eugene Imai
Director, Shumei America

Prof. Jennie Joe
University of Arizona; Navajo Community Health

Katherine Marshall
Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs

Barbara Marx Hubbard
President, Foundation for Conscious Evolution, pioneer of conscious evolution, author, speaker, social innovator.

Rt. Rev. Vashti McKenzie
Bishop, 13th District, African Methodist Episcopal Church. President, AME Church Council of Bishops

Prof. Donald W. Mitchell
Purdue University, Buddhist-Christian-Muslim Dialogue, Monastic Interreligious Dialogue

James O'Dea
Co-Director, Social Healing Project; author, teacher, activist; Institute of Noetic Sciences, Seva Foundation, Amnesty International, SEED Graduate Institute

James Quilligan
Director, Center for Global Negotiations

Dr. Mary Evelyn Tucker
Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar (Forestry and Environmental Studies, Divinity School), Yale University.

Lynne Twist
Pachamama Alliance

Wendy Tyndale
World Faiths Development Dialogue; journalist; human rights activist; advisory board, Knowledge Centre for Religion and Development.

William Ury
Cofounder with Jimmy Carter, Harvard Law School Project on Negotiation