Parliament of the Worlds Religions
December 1 - 8, 1999
Capetown South Africa
*A New Day Dawning*

Day 3:

1999 Parliament of the Worlds' Religions - a personal account

This morning, at 6:30 am, ten pagans were among the 300 people who boarded two ferries and trekked out to Robben Island to plant a Peace Pole.

Currently there are about 200,000 Peace Poles around the world in 163 countries. They are simple wooden structures about 5 feet high which have written on them "May Peace Prevail on Earth" in English and in the languages indigenous to the locations in which they are placed.

Robben Island, the place where Nelson Mandela was held prisoner for 28 years ---and which just the day before yesterday was named a "World Heritage Site"--- seems a perfect place for such a symbol of peace.

The ritual began as we disembarked. People carried flags from the countries of the world as they processed into the yard in front of what was once the maximum security prison. There we sat in chairs and were addressed first by the organizers of the event and then by the director of the museum, a former inmate during the time when Mandela was also incarcerated, who gave us a little history of the place. Robben Island has been used for centuries as a prison or place of banishment. The Dutch used it to house banished leaders from Indonesia and the near east during its colonial days; then, during the 19th century, it was used as a leper colony; and finally, during the apartheid regime, it was used to house political prisoners.

The director spoke quite emotionally about how important it was to him that we were all there and about how important religion and spirituality, of any form, was to the inmates during those years. He talked of the way that they used to all go to Catholic, Anglican, Muslim, Hindu and any other services that were available, just to keep the hope alive. He asked that we remember Robben Island as a "commemoration to the victory of the human spirit" rather than as a memorial to the suffering that went on there.

The Isibana Youth Choir than sang for us "Africa unite today; we don't need any killings any more; it's been so long, killing each other; Africa unite today." The beautiful and moving South African harmonies reached everyone attending.

Many religious leaders had prepared blessings for the pole, but, due to time restraints, a bishop from Johannesburg gave the official blessing for all. He blessed the pole with incense and water and asked that everyone there go forward to the pole before they left, place their hand --- or even better their two hands --- on the pole and fill it with their light, to bring it to life, so that it would not be a dead piece of wood, but a living beacon of light, of hope and of peace for all who come to that place. It was a beautiful blessing and, even though he was strongly based in his own tradition, he was very inclusive in his language - not only blessing in the name of Jesus, but in the name of all of the "great ones" of every tradition.

He was followed by a traditional African priest who made an offering and blessed the pole in the name of his ancestors and in the name of all of those who suffered and died on the Island. The pole was then officially given to the Island by Africa Msimang, the South African director of the Parliament. At the end, before we returned to the boats, all of the pagans there went to the pole and made our own blessing together.

It was a beautiful ceremony and then a beautiful boat ride back toward the magical Table Mountain and the city.

Until later,
Deirdre Pulgram Arthen
EarthSpirit's official "press representative"

Return to the 99 Parliament Information page
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We invite you to go to the CPWR web site to look at all of the events planned for the week in South Africa

Many thanks to the generous donors who contributed to this project and made it possible.