Religions for Peace Australia resolved at the recent Annual General Meeting on Sunday 6th June 2021, to write to the Prime Minister. One of our RfPA network roles is to assist with multi/intra-faith matters and social cohesion across the nation. In this regard, we raise three matters with the Prime Minister: Bringing Australians Home, the COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout and Financial Support during Future Lockdowns.
Australia is once again facing uncertainty about the future of Covid 19, the security of home and employment, the frailty of the aged and the messy spread and contagion of the Delta variant of Covid-19. Religions for Peace Australia has prepared a video of faith leaders from many traditions offering prayers for a time of uncertainty and Community Challenges.
Pax Christi Australia – in collaboration with Religions for Peace Australia, jointly presented “Truth Telling in Australia” which was given by Sherry Balcombe, of Aboriginal Catholic Ministry. This session was recorded at Kildara Centre, Stanhope St, Malvern on Sunday 27 June 2021.
Religions for Peace Australia gives one message about the Common Good and the need for vaccination, in order to protect the entire community we call home. We understand vaccine hesitancy. People have various reasons for being hesitant. However, for the Common Good of the Australian community, as your interfaith leaders we want to encourage you all to be vaccinated as soon as possible, each one of us. We urge all faith leaders to take action and promote the Common Good.
I have been a long-distance runner for most of my adult life: marathons, half-marathons, ultra-marathons, adventure races. Of all the places I’ve run, nothing really compares to the beauty—both natural and man-made–in Jerusalem, my newly adopted home. Within an area of just a few kilometers, I can be running around the walls of the Old City or inside a large urban wildlife refuge.
In partnership with Spiritual Health Association (SHA), Victorian Transcultural Mental Health (VTMH) is pleased to offer more opportunities for mental health practitioners to identify and explore challenges when spirituality or religion comes up during encounters with consumers.
July 30th is the World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, as declared by the United Nations. The Asian Conference on Religions for Peace is conducting an online prayer vigil for victims of Human Trafficking. Christians, Buddhists, Shinto, and Muslims will pray together (online) on July 30th, 2021 at 6:00pm, Tokyo time.
The Women’s Auxiliary of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association of Australia conducted an interfaith webinar, “Why Faith?” on 24th of July 2021. Vice chair of Religions for Peace Australia and President of the Multifaith Association of South Australia – Ms Philippa Rowland – participated in this event. Her contribution includes the interconnectedness of all things, the care of the Earth and the need to help guide our global family in the right direction.
Greetings of peace! We hope that all of your families and friends here and overseas are well and safe as the world battles with COVID and all its variants. We continue to hold everyone in our thoughts and prayers… especially at such a time people of faith hold on to the light of spiritual hope, knowing that compassion and lovingkindness can be a powerful means of helping one another through all these difficulties.
In August, we commemorate Hiroshima Day and Religions for Peace Tasmania will join the gathering to be held at 11-12noon on 7 August on Parliament House Lawns in Hobart.
Muslims across Australia haven’t been able to celebrate Eid Al Adha as usual this year, but festivities in Central Australia are in full swing. Eid al-Adha is one of the holy days in the Islamic calendar. Alice Springs’ Afghan Mosque is a safe space for the diverse, but relatively small Muslim community.
While technological improvements and increases in flexible working arrangements have their benefits, they are also creating the everlasting working day, which is creating problems for a human workforce. Now a new ‘right to disconnect’ movement – today’s high-tech equivalent of the union movement’s protection of the working day – is gaining followers promoting the idea that managers shouldn’t contact employees outside of working hours or on leave or rest days.
Father Hien Vu, the parish priest at Flemington and Kensington, began noticing something this year that surprised him at St Brendan’s and Holy Rosary churches: new faces. Not only new faces, but young new faces. Father Hien estimates many were aged between 20 and 30.
The August session of Hope’s Cafe will take place on Friday evening 6 August, and Saturday, 7 August 2021, focussing on the life journey and rites of passage.
Scientific organizations like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are publishing sea level rise projections with increasing levels of confidence. In its 2019 report, the IPCC projected (chart above) 0.6 to 1.1 meters (1 to 3 feet) of global sea level rise by 2100 (or about 15 millimeters per year) if greenhouse gas emissions remain at high rates. By 2300, seas could stand as much as 5 meters higher under the worst-case scenario. If countries do cut their emissions significantly, the IPCC expects 0.3 to 0.6 meters of sea level rise by 2100.
In the final month of the Islamic lunar calendar, Muslims around the world celebrate Eid al-Adha. If you’re unfamiliar with the event, or just need to brush up on when it begins, we’ve put together a handy guide. Let’s start with the basics.
The Asian Conference on Religions for Peace has identified the prevention of Human Trafficking as a key project. Human Trafficking is not just the problem of certain countries, but all countries are involved as perpetrators. There will be an online shelter visit to a centre in the Philippines on Saturday, July 17th, 2021 @2:30 PM~4:30 PM (Japan Standard Time).
The Freilich Project is pleased to invite you to a Freilich Network Webinar with Professors Zehavit Gross and Suzanne D. Rutland. The session will be chaired by Emeritus Professor Terry Lovat.
The Institute DIAN/Interfidei (of Yogyakarta, Indonesia) considers it very important to provide opportunity for friends in several countries in Asia-Pacific and share their experiences and work of the peace movement on why networking is important. You are invited to attend the third series Webinar on the 30th anniversary of the DIAN Institute/Interfidei: “Sharing experiences and critical reflections with friends, acquaintances, peacemakers in the Asia-Pacific Region“. This is an online event on Thursday, July 15, 2021.
The deadline for this invitation has been extended to Monday, July 12 … The Islamic Cooperation Youth Forum (ICYF) and Religions for Peace (RfP) in collaboration with the Statistical, Economic and Social Research and Training Centre for Islamic Countries (SESRIC); the International Islamic Fiqh Academy (IIFA); the Research Center for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA); the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas; Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, Georgetown University; and the Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies, Mahidol University, are organizing a symposium on “Youth Engagement with Religion and Faith in the 21st Century,” scheduled for 28-29 July 2021, followed by a publication of research and presentations to be launched in October 2021.
You are invited to join in the third of the “Who is My G-d?” interfaith dialogue series, co-hosted by the Network of Spiritual Progressives and the Centre for Interfaith Understanding – Singapore. This interfaith dialogue will be live-streamed on Facebook.
On 20 July from 5:45 – 7pm, the Blackfriars lecture will address Closing the gap through Indigenous health initiatives by Mr Craig Ritchie, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. Event is free, RSVP by email. The lecture title is Homer among the Health Workers: metis, culture and closing the gap, a personal reflection.