Melbourne, Australia, may be a long way to travel, but now is the time to go for the global conference of the Parliament of the World’s Religions. The week-long conference (December 3 – 9), titled “Make a World of Difference: Hearing Each Other, Healing the Earth,” will be the world’s largest interfaith gathering, offering the global religious and spiritual communities — and their leaders — more than 500 events to discuss and explore peace, diversity, and sustainability in the context of interreligious understanding and cooperation.

Major speakers for this year’s Parliament include:

• Fr. Laurence Freeman, Director of the World Community for Christian Meditation, UK
• His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhist leader, India
• Chief Oren Lyons, Native American Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan of the Onondaga Nation, USA
• Professor Joy Murphy Wandin, senior Aboriginal Woman of the Wurundjeri people, Australia
• Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, political scientist and founder of JUST, Malaysia
• Rev. Dr. Ishmael Noko, General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation and Convenor of the Interfaith Action for Peace in Africa
• Rev. Dr. Shanta D. Premawardhana, Director of Interreligious Dialogue and Cooperation, World Council of Churches, Switzerland
• Rabbi David Rosen, Chairman of International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations, Israel
• His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, spiritual leader of the Art of Living Foundation, India

The gathering will take place at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, designed to achieve the first six green-star environmental rating. For more information, visit parliamentofreligions.org.