Pre-Parliament Event to Explore the Global Ethic as a Common Moral Foundation for a World in Conflict

Rev. Stephen Avino serves as the Executive Director of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, the world’s premier interfaith convening non-profit organization. Rev. Avino became a member of the Staff at the Parliament in 2012 and has remained deeply committed to the success of the global interfaith movement, serving as a key organizer for the 2015 Parliament Convening in Salt Lake City, the 2018 Parliament Convening in Toronto, and the 2021 Virtual Parliament Convening.

An avid seeker of knowledge and a dedicated person of faith, Rev. Avino earned a Master of Arts in Religious Studies at the Chicago Theological Seminary in 2015 and became ordained through the Independent Catholic Movement in 2019. He lives in Chicago, USA where he remains deeply committed to advocating for the legacy of the Parliament and a more inclusive interreligious movement.

Dr. Myriam Renaud (PhD University of Chicago) is the Principal Investigator and Director of the Global Ethic Project at the Parliament of the World’s Religions. She also teaches bioethics at DePaul University and world religions at Union Institute & University. In 2017-2018, she led the Parliament’s effort to add to its Global Ethic document a moral directive calling for a commitment to a culture of sustainability and care for the Earth. Dr. Renaud has co-edited and contributed to two volumes on the Global Ethic document: God and the Moral Life (2018) and Multi-Religious Perspectives on a Global Ethic: The Search for a Common Morality (2020). Most recently, she published the monograph Constructing Moral Concepts of God in a Global Age (2022). 

Dr. Stephan Schlensog is Secretary General of the Global Ethic Foundation. He studied Catholic theology and Indology in Tübingen/Germany and is the author of several publications on the world’s religions and ethical issues. His own research focus is on the religions of India, especially Hinduism.

Dr. Schlensog collaborated with Prof. Dr. Hans Küng from 1984 until Küng’s death in 2021. Among other projects, Dr. Schelsog was a collaborator on a multi-year research project on Judaism, Christianity and Islam and on the 7-part multimedia project “Tracing the Way. Spiritual Dimensions of the World Religions.” In 2015-2020, he worked with Hans Küng to edit Küng’s 24-volume “Collected Works.”

Kaleb is a strategist for organizations working at the intersection of sustainability, spirituality, and democratic reform. From 2012-19 he oversaw the growth of Young Evangelicals for Climate Action as a steering committee member and civic engagement chair. He has done research on faith-based refugee resettlement in Sweden (funded by Baptist Theological Union), congregational responses to ecological despair in the United States (funded by the Louisville Institute), and the intersection of big data and democratic dysfunction (as part of a data science fellowship with the Flatiron School). He is a member of Ravenswood Evangelical Covenant Church in Chicago, where he was the youth director for seven years. With the Parliament, he has served as the 2018 Climate Action Program Associate and 2021 Virtual Convening Associate. Kaleb has a B.A. in Global Studies and Conflict Transformation from North Park University, and a Master of Divinity and a Master of Public Policy from the University of Chicago.