Religious Leaders Speak at Mill Pond School

As an extension of a yearlong curriculum that includes the examination of world cultures, the sixth graders at are participating in the annual World Religions Symposium today. Throughout the day, students will attend presentations by local religious leaders and learn about eight different religions, including Catholic, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, Unitarian Universalist, Muslim, Methodist and Jewish.

“The purpose of this symposium is to teach the sixth grade students about religions from around the world,” read a statement from sixth grade teacher Chris Rogers. “This symposium will provide the students with the opportunity to learn from primary sources.  The students will benefit from having the different religious representatives together in one day because they will be able to identify and understand the differences and similarities of these world religions.”

The program begins at 8:15 a.m. with an introductory video. Then, the approximately 250 students will break into smaller groups. Each group will attend a 25 minute program about one of the religions before moving on to the next presentation. This will continue through the morning, ending at lunch.

After lunch, a one hour panel discussion will take place in which all of the religious representatives will meet together with the students and each other. 

“Students have the rare opportunity to extend their knowledge of the different cultures from around the world and appreciate these different cultures on a first-hand level,” said Rogers.

Speakers were asked to identify the basic principles and beliefs, key figures and major prophets, important symbols, places of worship, sacred text(s), major holy days or religious festivals and rites of passage of the faith.

Rogers said that some of the speakers are religious leaders from Westborough congregations, including , and . Other speakers include Westborough citizens and leaders from nearby congregations.

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