UCA Jewish Dialogue Meeting

Uniting Church dialogue with Jewish

Religions for Peace NSW Chair Josie Lacey participated in the recent Uniting Church in Australia and the Executive Council of Australian Jewry Dialogue at the Great Synagogue in Sydney.

The main topic of discussion for the day was traditions of Death and Mourning within the two faiths. Discussion was led first by Chief Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence and then by Rev Dr Matthew Wilson. Jeremy Lawrence outlined the Jewish practices of death and mourning – noting that for Jewish people this world is a corridor to the world to come and that in dealing with the passage of life from this world the Jewish faith focuses on the honouring of the deceased and the comforting of the bereaved.

Within the Uniting Church there is significant difference between how our predominantly Anglo congregations undertake funeral and mourning rites and how those may be observed by some of our ethnic congregations. The Uniting Church ministers present shared some of their experiences of death and funeral practices within the congregations they have led or experienced.

In the afternoon a range of recent topics of mutual interest were discussed. One of these related to the difficulties caused by the announcement of the Federal Election date which will clash with Yom Kippur. This will particularly be a concern for Jewish candidates who will be unable to participate in events on the day of the election itself. It will also require that all observant Jewish people lodge pre-poll votes before the day of the election

The next meeting of the Dialogue will be in Melbourne in late October.


Participants in the Uniting Church – Executive Council of Australian Jewry

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