On Sunday 15th November, three days after the Charter of Compassion was officially launched, Danielle Lauren, a young Jewish woman, marked the launch of the Australian arm of the Charter at the Museum of Sydney. To mark the occasion Danielle gathered a number of faith representatives, each of whom spoke about compassion from the perspective of their faith tradition. Faiths represented were Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity and Zoroastrian. Rev Seforosa Carroll, convener of the Assembly's Relations with Other Faiths Working Group, spoke about compassion from a Christian perspective, emphasizing the relationship between loving God and loving neighbour. What is significant about the Charter for Compassion is that it reminds people of all faiths about the power and possibility of compassion to change and transform lives and thereby make a difference in the world. The Charter for Compassion is something people of any faith, age, culture or walk of life can participate in. It is a reminder that small acts of kindness and compassion can make a difference to someone’s life and in turn help shape and influence the kind of world we aspire to create and hope for.
The Charter for Compassion is available on PDF format here and can be downloaded in different languages
http://charterforcompassion.org/share/about
What is the Charter of Compassion?
On receiving her TED prize in 2008, historian of religion, Karen Armstrong made the following wish; “I wish that you would help with the creation, launch and propagation of a Charter for Compassion, crafted by a group of leading inspirational thinkers from the three Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam and based on the fundamental principles of universal justice and respect.”
Why a Charter for Compassion?
The Charter of Compassion is a cooperative effort to restore not only compassionate thinking but, more importantly, compassionate action to the center of religious, moral and political life. Compassion is the principled determination to put ourselves in the shoes of the other, and lies at the heart of all religious and ethical systems. One of the most urgent tasks of our generation is to build a global community where men and women of all races, nations and ideologies can live together in peace. In our globalized world, everybody has become our neighbor, and the Golden Rule has become an urgent necessity.
The Charter, crafted by people all over the world and drafted by a multi-faith, multi-national council of thinkers and leaders, seeks to change the conversation so that compassion becomes a key word in public and private discourse, making it clear that any ideology that breeds hatred or contempt ~ be it religious or secular ~ has failed the test of our time. It is not simply a statement of principle; it is above all a summons to creative, practical and sustained action to meet the political, moral, religious, social and cultural problems of our time.
Click here for more information about the Charter for Compassion