Wembley's Parliament of Living Religions was part of the British Empire Exhibition of 1924, inviting famous representatives of important Living Religions within the British Empire. Although the Exhibition was held at Wembley Park in north-west London the Conference was held at the Imperial Institute, between 22 September and 3 October 1924.
Contents
The tradition of this and similar World Fairs go back to the early 18th century. Some of the more famous ones have been The Great Exhibition of 1851 in London and Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago in 1893.
Proposed Objectives
William Loftus Hare described the following ten objectives of such International Conferences.
1. To bring together in conference, for the first time in history, the leading representatives of the great Historic Religions of the world.
2. To show to men, in the most impressive way, what and how many important truths the various religions held and teach in common.
3. To promote and deepen the spirit of human brotherhood among religious men of diverse faiths, through friendly conference and mutual good understanding, while not seeking to foster the temper of indifferentism, and not striving to achieve any formal and outward unity.
4. To set forth, by those most competent to speak, what arc deemed the important distinctive truths held and taught by each religion, and by the various chief branches of Christendom.
5. To indicate the impregnable foundations of theism and the reasons for man's faith in immortality, and thus to unite and strengthen the forces which are adverse to a materialistic philosophy of the universe.
6. To secure from leading scholars, representing the Brahman. Buddhist, Confucian, Parsee. Mohammedan, Jewish and other faiths, and from representatives of the various churches of Christen- dom, full and accurate statements of the spiritual and other effects of the religions which they hold upon the literature, art, commerce, government, domestic and social life of the peoples among whom these faiths have prevailed.
7. To inquire what light each religion has afforded, or may afford, to the other religions of the world.
8. To set forth, for permanent record to be published to the world, an accurate and authoritative account of the present condition and outlook of religion among the leading nations of the earth.
9. To discover, from competent men, what light religion has to throw on the great problems of the present age, especially the important questions connected with temperance, labor, education, wealth and poverty.
10. To bring the nations of the earth into a more friendly fellowship, in the hope of securing permanent international peace.
Main Participants and Religious Representatives
Mirza Bashir-ud-Din Mahmud Ahmad (Islam)
Sir Francis Young-Husband
Pandit Shyam Shankar
Al-Haj Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din
Mustafa Khan
Sheikh Kahdim El Dojaily
Sufi Hafiz Raushan Ali
Dr. W.A. de Silva
Mr. G.P. Malalasekera
Mr. Shoson Miyamoto
Shams-ul-Ulema Dastur Kaikobad Adarbad Noshirvan
Rai Bahadur Jagmander Lal Jaini
Sardar Kahan Singh
Mr. Hsu Ti-Shan
Mr. N.C. Sen
Professor S.N. Pherwani
Mr. Mountford Mills
Mr. Ruhi Afnan
The Venerable Archdeacon Williams
Mr. Richard St. Barbe Baker
Mr. Albert Thoka
Mr. L.W.G. Malcom
Professor J. Arthur Thomson
Mr. Victor Branford
Professor H.J. Fleure
Rachel Annand Taylor
Mr. Christopher Dawson
Mr. William Loftus Hare
Professor Patrick Geddes
Reverend Tyssul Davies