Tasmania – September 2020

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Greetings of peace! A group of interested people have begun to investigate the possibility of Hobart signing on to the Charter for Compassion and thereby taking up the challenge of becoming a Compassionate City.  Australia signed on to the Charter in 2010.  The aim of Charter for Compassion Australia is for Australia to become a Continent for Compassion by 21 September 21, but before that, there is the hope that interested capital cities will commit to the initiative. 

Religions for Peace Tasmania Branch is taking part in the investigation of whether Hobart should become a compassionate city: https://charterforcompassion.org/charter-for-compassion-australia 

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Virtual UN Peace Day with Calm in the City

UN Peace Day MelbourneInternational Day of Peace will be celebrated in Melbourne on Monday 21 September 2020 with an online event. Opening and Closing Reflections to the event will be given by The Honourable Linda Dessau, AC – the Governor of Victoria, and Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp.

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Perth: Muslim Film Festival 2020

Muslim Film Festival 2020Muslim Film Festival 2020 aims to promote inclusion, tolerance, and friendship and introduce Muslim society’s culture and stories to a wider audience. Our program will reflect the diversity and opportunities within Muslim communities in the West and all over the world, through fiction and documentary films, short and long, and our goal is to show films that the audience would otherwise have not seen, and leave a lasting impact. The launch will take place at the State Library of WA, Saturday 5 September 2020 1:00 PM and Saturday 5 September 2020 3:15 PM – coronavirus restrictions permitting.

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Review: Embracing Auschwitz

Book Cover: Embracing AuschwitzI have a cynical friend who claims that there have been more books written about the Holocaust than there were people who perished in it. That is, no doubt, an exaggeration, but it is true that most of the books on this subject sound very much alike. Joshua Hammerman’s Embracing Auschwitz (Ben Yehuda Press) deserves our attention because it is by far the most original book on this subject that has come along in a great many years.

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Serving a Wounded World: The Good Samaritan and Covid-19

Serving a Wounded World coverThe World Council of Churches in collaboration with the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue have prepared a document on interreligious collaboration during the time of coronavirus. In this article, we bring you the Preamble, focussed on the story of the Good Samaritan, a profound and challenging story of human response to suffering. We include a synopsis of the world situation.

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WCC, Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue release “Serving a Wounded World” document

Serving a Wounded World coverThe World Council of Churches and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue have released a joint document, “Serving a Wounded World in Interreligious Solidarity: A Christian Call to Reflection and Action During COVID-19 and Beyond.” Its purpose is to encourage churches and Christian organizations to reflect on the importance of interreligious solidarity in a world wounded by the COVID-19 pandemic.

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