In June we will be sharing in Multifaith events of two organisations. The first, Tierra Segrada or Sacred Earth, is a world-wide Multifaith day of prayer and action for the planet and a call to world leaders to commit to a 1.5 degree C limit on global temperature rise. This will be co-ordinated in Hobart by Marilyn Goninon at Scots Memorial Uniting Church, Bathurst St Hobart from 3.00-4.00pm on Sunday 12 June.
Secondly, we will share Tasmanians for Recognition’s Journey for Recognition to be held in Hobart from 12 noon to 2.00pm on 25 June on Parliament House lawns. There will be wet weather backup. There are a number of venues round Tasmania where people are welcome to join the Journey.
Greetings of peace!
There are many events for you to know about this month and several of them, listed below (roughly by date), are coming up in the next few days. Ramadan begins on Monday 6 June and concludes with the celebration of Eid al-Fitr on Tuesday 5 July 2016. Shavuot, commemorating the anniversary of the day God gave the Torah to the nations of Israel, starts on Sunday 12 June and finishes on Monday 13 June, the Martyrdom of Sikh Sri Guru Arjun Dev Ji will be celebrated on 16th June and the Orthodox Feast of Pentecost will be held on Sunday 19 June.
Sacred Earth 2016
Tierra Segrada or Sacred Earth, is a world-wide Multifaith day of prayer and action for the planet and a call to world leaders to commit to a 1.5 degree C limit on global temperature rise. This will be co-ordinated in Hobart by Marilyn Goninon at Scots Memorial Uniting Church, Bathurst St Hobart from 3.00-4.00pm on Sunday 12 June. http://sacredearth2016.org/ For more information, Marilyn may be contacted on 6278 1092.
Six months after world leaders reached the historic Paris Climate Agreement, faith communities around the world will come together in a day of beautiful commitment and blessing for the earth.
Sacred Earth, Sacred Trust is a worldwide, multi-faith day of prayer & action for the planet and a call for world leaders to commit to a 1.5 degree limit on global temperature rise to protect millions of people around the world.
Catholics around the world will celebrate the anniversary of ‘Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ Encyclical on climate change, and the Global Muslim Climate Network is celebrating a Green Iftar as Sacred Earth will be taking place during Ramadan.
See http://sacredearth2016.org/ for more information
Tasmanians for Recognition
While the formal process towards a referendum continues via the Referendum Council, RECOGNISE has been engaging with communities all over Australia about constitutional recognition. More than 295,000 Australians have signed up to support the RECOGNISE movement.
Since 26 May 2013, the RECOGNISE Journey to Recognition relay has been on the road for 344 days, and has travelled throughout Victoria, South Australia, Northern Territory, Western Australia, Queensland, Torres Strait Islands and parts of New South Wales. More than 344 events and meetings have been hosted in over 260 communities, engaging more than 26,56 people and covering more than 35,833 kilometres. These numbers will continue to rise as the Journey prepares to make its way to Tasmania from 14 June 2016.
Tasmanians for Recognition’s Journey for Recognition to be held in Hobart from 12 noon to 2.00pm on 25 June on Parliament House lawns. There will be wet weather backup.
There are a number of venues round the state where people are welcome to join the Journey. At the moment of sending this email, confirmation of the venues around the state hasn’t been received. If you are interested, please see the website: www.recognise.org.au/thejourney.
SBS Video on Hindu and Sikh in Tasmania
There was a recent interview by SBS of Ramesh Narayana from the Hindu Community and Narinder Gill from the Sikh Community with the respect to the importance of the availability of religious and cultural space in Tasmania.
Tasmania’s government is being pressed to do more to support the state’s culturally-specific groups.
Places of worship and cultural centres can be important places for developing a sense of community.
The Multicultural Council of Tasmania says stronger migration policies could help attract more migrants to the state, which has set an ambitious goal to boost its population.
Tasmania’s Sikh community has created an unofficial temple in a rented semi-rural property east of Hobart.
But the President of the Sikh Society of Tasmania, Narindar Gill, says a permanent site would help many feel more at home.
“Because Sikhs everywhere in the world, wherever they travel, the first place they always look for is a Gudwara because they know where their community will be congregating so they feel at ease, and safe when they’ve got that. It’s where they also then start to network within their community and then obviously grow out of that.”
The Tasmanian Government wants to increase the state’s population to 650,000 by 2050.
Currently, Tasmania’s population is just over 500,000.
But Anna Reynolds, from the Multicultural Council of Tasmania, says migrant retention could be the key to achieving the government’s goal.
The Multicultural Council is conducting research on the experiences of migrants to – and from – Tassie.
You can read more on the SBS Website.
From the Sikh Community
The Sikh community will be having an Akhand paath sahib (continuous recital of the Holy Scripture, Guru Granth sahib ji). This will be held continuously, day and night, on this coming Saturday, Sunday and Monday, 11, 12, 13 June. Everyone is most welcome at 50 Begonia street, Lindisfarne 7015. Ladies will need a head covering and gentlemen will need a beanie or other head covering.
From Hobart Buddhist Meditation Centre:
There is a 4 week program on Tuesday Evenings at the Hobart Buddhist Meditation Centre during June 2016 entitled Buddhist Foundations with Charles Chadwick.
These foundation practices cause us to reflect on our present reality and motivate us to live a spiritual life imbued with meaning, compassion and wisdom.
Week 1 Appreciation of our Human situation – realising our potential
Week 2 Awareness of death and the uncertainty of the time of our death – realising we have limited time
Week 3 Acceptance of the suffering aspect of our lives and how to stop causing ourselves unnecessary suffering
Week 4 Karma- How we influence and shape our future.
Each session builds on previous sessions and ideally participants can attend the whole month, however people are welcome to drop into any session.
About Hobart Buddhist Meditation Centre
Meditation and Discussion 7.30-9 pm, every Tuesday. Entry by $5 suggested donation.
71-3 Liverpool St [Goulds building, down the laneway to the right of the building, in the door between the bamboo pots and up the stairs to the 2nd floor]
email info@hobartbuddhistmeditationcentre.com
website www.hobartbuddhistmeditationcentre.com
from Thay, UTAS Representative Buddhist Chaplain
Dr. Paul McQuillan of the Viktor Frankl Institute in Queensland has offered to come to Hobart to teach, in a three day course, an introduction to Logotherapy, a meaning centred approach to working with people in both the areas of counselling and pastoral care.
For a full statement concerning Paul’s background please go here (PDF, downloads in new window)
Paul has recently co-published a book on Meaning Based Psychology. You can watch a video promo.
The course will take place on August 29th – 31st., 2016 (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday) at the Multifaith Chaplaincy Centre on the Sandy Bay Campus of the University of Tasmania. It will take place during the mid-semester break at the university which will allow for a greater availability of parking.
Attached to this invitation is Introduction to the Psychological Approach of Viktor Frankl concerning the course so I would ask you to contact Paul directly to register your interest. There will be an upper limit of ten (10) participants. Morning and afternoon tea will be made available but please bring your own packed lunch. This will help keep costs down and it will mean that participants on special diets will be able to cater for themselves.
I have completed this course on-line last year (2015) and I find the work and person of Viktor Frankl very inspiring. Many of you may have heard of Viktor Frankl or even read “Man’s Search for Meaning”. Dr Frankl was raised within the Jewish tradition and was imprisoned in a number of concentration camps between 1942 and 1945. His whole family perished including his young, pregnant wife. It was in this context of unimaginable suffering that he consolidated his model of therapy.
Logotherapy is an existentially based approach to human development and is accessible, therefore, to people of any religion and none. It is of immediate application in both counselling and pastoral care in relation to people facing unchangeable suffering but it has a powerful application to those experiencing confusion around meaning and direction in their lives.
While I enjoyed doing this course on-line, I am sure that it would have been a much richer experience if I had done it in the company of others. This is the opportunity we have and you are welcome to join us.
The Tablet
From Tablet:
Have you ever wanted to learn Hebrew? An online course is available through the online Language Academy of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem: Click here!
Baha’i Seven Mark Eight Years Behind Bars in Iran
May 14 marked the eighth year of imprisonment for seven Baha’i leaders in Iran.
In 2008, during their first four months in prison, the seven leaders were held in solitary confinement and denied meaningful access to their lawyers. After a series of short, closed-door sessions in 2010, they were formally charged with espionage, propaganda activities, and corruption on earth, among other related charges.
Nobel Peace Laureate Shirin Ebadi, who was one of the lawyers for the seven, stated that there was no evidence to sustain any of the charges against them. Nonetheless, each of them was sentenced to twenty years in prison – the longest sentences of any prisoner of conscience in Iran today. In the last few months, those sentences have reportedly been reduced to ten years with the application of provisions of Iran’s new penal code issued in 2013. Nevertheless, even one day more behind bars is a gross injustice. Independent observers around the world, recognizing their innocence, have advocated for the seven leaders’ immediate release. Yet they remain behind bars.
From Zenit
Pope Francis meets top Egyptian cleric at Vatican, ending five-year freeze in relations
Pope Francis has met the grand imam of Egypt’s highest Islamic authority, Al-Azhar, looking to heal Vatican relations with the influential centre of Sunni Muslim learning after dialogue was frozen five years ago. The 1,000-year-old mosque and university centre cut contacts with the Vatican in 2011 over what it said were repeated insults towards Islam from Francis’s predecessor, Pope Benedict.
You can read more here.
Pope’s Message to World Humanitarian Summit
Here is the message Pope Francis sent to the first World Humanitarian Summit. It was delivered by his secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who is leading the Holy See’s top-level delegation at the event.
The summit was convened by the secretary-general of the United Nations and began today in Istanbul. It aims to bring together representatives from governments and the private sector to address humanitarian crises.
The Pope on Sunday asked the faithful to pray for the participants’ resolve to save “the life of every human being, with no one excluded, in particular the innocent and most defenseless.”
__
To His Excellency Ban Ki-moon
Secretary-General of the United Nations
I wish to greet all those taking part in this first World Humanitarian Summit, the President of Turkey together with the organizers of this meeting, and you, Mr Secretary-General, who have called for this occasion to be a turning point for the lives of millions of people who need protection, care and assistance, and who seek a dignified future.
I hope that your efforts may contribute in a real way to alleviating the sufferings of these millions of people, so that the fruits of the Summit may be demonstrated through a sincere solidarity and a true and profound respect for the rights and dignity of those suffering due to conflicts, violence, persecution and natural disasters. In this context, the victims are those who are most vulnerable, those who live in conditions of misery and exploitation.
We cannot deny that many interests today prevent solutions to conflicts, and that military, economic and geopolitical strategies displace persons and peoples and impose the god of money, the god of power. At the same time, humanitarian efforts are frequently conditioned by commercial and ideological constraints.
For this reason, what is needed today is a renewed commitment to protect each person in their daily life and to protect their dignity and human rights, their security and their comprehensive needs. At the same time, it is necessary to preserve freedom and the social and cultural identity of peoples; without this leading to instances of isolation, it should also favour cooperation, dialogue, and especially peace.
“Leaving no one behind” and “doing one’s very best” demands that we do not give up and that we take responsibility for our decisions and actions regarding the victims themselves. First of all, we must do this in a personal way, and then together, coordinating our strengths and initiatives, with mutual respect for our various skills and areas of expertise, not discriminating but rather welcoming. In other words: there must be no family without a home, no refugee without a welcome, no person without dignity, no wounded person without care, no child without a childhood, no young man or woman without a future, no elderly person without a dignified old age.
May this also be the occasion to recognize the work of those who serve their neighbour and contribute to consoling the sufferings of the victims of war and calamity, of the displaced and refugees, and who care for society, particularly through courageous choices in favour of peace, respect, healing and forgiveness. This is the way in which human lives are saved.
No one loves a concept, no one loves an idea; we love persons. Self-sacrifice, true self-giving, flows from love towards men and women, the children and elderly, peoples and communities… faces, those faces and names which fill our hearts.
Today I offer a challenge to this Summit: let us hear the cry of the victims and those suffering. Let us allow them to teach us a lesson in humanity. Let us change our ways of life, politics, economic choices, behaviours and attitudes of cultural superiority.
Learning from victims and those who suffer, we will be able to build a more humane world.
I assure you my prayers, and I invoke upon all present the divine blessings of wisdom, strength and peace.
From the Vatican, 21 May 2016
FRANCISCUS PP.
Byakko Shinko Kai
From Jenny at Byakko Shinko Kai:
Dear Friends,
Announcing an event of integrated sharing of love, an honouring of the divine feminine in both men and women.
As part of the International Symphony of Peace Prayers, please join us either as an individual or organise a small to large gathering, expressing the beautiful feminine qualities we wish to see in all people throughout the world.
Have a browse of the Fuji Declaration website that is hosting the Soul of WoMen campaign, culminating on Sunday May 15th at Symphony of Peace Prayers. http://fujideclaration.org/soulofwomen/
Honouring can be done anytime, in your own way, not just on that day.
Please share as you feel inclined.
Coda: More at Home
Last December, representatives of 196 nations did something they’d never before been able to accomplish before. Gathered in Paris, they reached an international agreement on climate change. Together our faith communities were at the heart of making this happen. But there is still more to do. Sacred Earth is a worldwide spiritual event taking place on Jun 12, 2016. This event spans many faith traditions.
SACRED EARTH, SACRED TRUST
A Day of Prayer & Action for People & Planet
JUNE 12 – WORLDWIDE
FAITHS RISING FOR PEOPLE & PLANET
Sacred Earth, Sacred Trust is a worldwide, multi-faith day of prayer & action for the planet and a call for world leaders to commit to a 1.5 degree limit on global temperature rise.
Six months after world leaders reached the Paris Agreement, communities around the world will come together in a day of beautiful commitment and blessing for the earth.
We Will Celebrate The earth as sacred; worthy of our respect, awe and veneration.
We Will Reaffirm That ultimately, we aren´t earth’s owners, but rather her caretakers.
We will Reassert Our moral responsibility for the well-being, interdependence of all life and show our solidarity with the most vulnerable.
HOW TO JOIN IN
Around the world communities will be joining in an incredible variety of ways. Our diversity is our strongest power.
Here are just a couple of the ways communities are joining in:
- Say a prayer, make a blessing, sing a song or meditate – on your own, with your family or bring your community together.
- Stage a sit in meditation outside a place that’s important locally – a new fracking site, your town hall, a coal mine, or a place that’s at risk.
- Hold your service outdoors, to reconnect the community to nature.
- Organise a community project – paint a mural, banners or build a sculpture.
- A march through your town, bring together people from your community and beyond around protecting our planet for the vulnerable.
Then, we share our celebrations and actions with the world using #SacredEarth2016!
Find out more. Go to Sacred Earth 2016
Sacred Earth, Sacred Trust has a repository of prayers and chants from the world’s religions, including Interfaith Chants.
In peace,
Terry
Convenor RfP Tasmania Branch
6272 6521
Religions for Peace Tasmania
