Western Australia: Fully Sikh!

Fully Sikh Flyer

Fully Sikh is a new Australian work by one of Australia’s most talented and celebrated spoken word artists. Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa’s culture and politics have informed her poetry for years. She made headlines around the globe when she performed a rousing poem confronting racism on Australia’s Got Talent and went on to tour her poetry across Australia and overseas. Fully Sikh is Sukhjit’s story and marks her highly anticipated theatre debut.

Fully Sikh is a celebration of family and Sikh culture, with all of its complexity, told with Sukhjit’s lyrical style and flow. It is the story of growing up as a brown, hairy Sikh girl in the Perth suburbs and features a Punjabi meal cooked live on stage.

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Quakers Australia: Climate Emergency & Species Extinction – Part 2

Quakers Australia At the Yearly Meeting in Hobart, 2019, Australian Quakers resolved to spiritually respond to the Climate Emergency and Spiritual Extinction. The meeting resolved, inter-alia, We are called to consider the world as an en-Spirited whole, to accept no boundary to repairing and sustaining the Earth for the future, and to appreciate more deeply the creative energy in all living things and life processes. We seek to mend what has been hurt, and to strengthen our courage to discern and bear witness to this spiritual care for the Earth.

Read moreQuakers Australia: Climate Emergency & Species Extinction – Part 2

Advancing Shared Well-being as a Multi-religious Vision of Positive Peace

European Council of Religious Leaders LogoThis paper was written and presented by Rev Dr Thomas Wipf – President European Council of Religious Leaders (ECRL) and presented at the 10th World Assembly Religions for Peace International Lindau Germany, August 20th 2019.

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Sikhs across Victoria come together to celebrate the 550th birth anniversary of Sikhism’s founder

Hundreds of people from all over Victoria attended Bendigo's first Nagar Kirtan.The 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, is being celebrated worldwide — and for the first time in Bendigo. A colourful parade with a decorated mobile Gurduara float complete with priest, hymn singing, and martial arts displays made its way through Bendigo, followed by hundreds of people from Melbourne to Mildura on Sunday.

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Melbourne’s Living the Change Year Two Event

Living the Change - Melbourne

Around 40 people gathered on Sunday 8 September 2019 for Living the Change Year Two. This was a joint Australias Religious Response to Climate Change, United Religious Initiatives and Religions for Peace Victoria activity

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Proceedings of Instanbul Workshop on Covenants of Prophet Muhammad

workshop on examining the covenants of Prophet Muhammad

This workshop was the second to be convened by Lord Daniel Brennan, Chairman Emeritus of the Caux Round Table for Moral Capitalism and Stephen B. Young, Global Executive Director of the Caux Round Table for Moral Capitalism. The workshop was organized by Professor Abdullah Al-Ahsan of Istanbul Sehir University and his colleagues. The first workshop was held at the Vatican on January 19, 2019 with the assistance of Archbishop Silvano Tomasi.

These documents are pledges of protection from the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) to Christian, Jewish and other monotheistic communities in Arabia, Persia, Egypt, Greater Syria and beyond.

In addition to the numerous copies that have been examined and found to have consistency with various verses of the Quran, matching phrases, accurate dates when compared with the Islamic calendar, the workshop also found references to the Covenants in early Muslim and Christian sources, including books by Islamic jurists and letters of Christian bishops.

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NSW: Social Cohesion and Inclusion National Conference

Social Cohesion for Australia

The Australian Baha’i Community would like to warmly invite you to attend the Social Cohesion and Inclusion National Conference on 8 November 2019 at the Harbourview Hotel, North Sydney. We hope you can also bring your colleagues and networks to engage in this purposeful space reflecting on the strength of social cohesion and inclusion in our country.

Q&As with speakers and panellists have been allocated generous time to allow conference participants to explore their presentations deeply. Participants are also invited to contribute ideas on how social cohesion can be strengthened and maintained in Australia in a roundtable session. These ideas will be distilled into a document to be made widely available.

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Victoria: Tackling Hate Speech Program

OHPI LogoThe Council of Christians and Jews Victoria – in collaboration with the Online Hate Prevention Institute will deliver the first workshop of the Tackling Hate Speech Program at St Dominic’s Primary School, Camberwell on Saturday 10 November from 2 – 4 pm.

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Victoria: Launch of Gesher 2019

Council of Christians and Jews Victoria LogoThe first edition of the Council of Christians and Jews (Victoria) journal, Gesher, appeared in October 1990. This journal strives to serve as a bridge between Christianity and Judaism. The Launch of Gesher 2019 will take place at Genazzano College, Kew, on the afternooon of 1 December 2019. The Council of Christians and Jews invites you to the Launch of Gesher 2019 ‘Women and Religion’.

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Can Meditation Change the World? – Film Review, ‘The Portal’

Movie Flyer - The Portal Meditation is an inner journey to a place beyond the mind. Our minds may panic and invent all sorts of excuses – mainly that we “don’t have time” – to avoid you doing this. For the mind fears anything that might take you to beyond, to peace – for example – or to inner stillness. This movie, The Portal, looks at the impact meditation has on six individuals. Does meditation make people better? Does meditation insulate us from the cacophony we travel trough in life?

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Jewish International Film Festival 2019

JEWISH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALThe Jewish Film Festival 2019 returns to Australian cinemas with a new line up of intriguing movies. The festival opens in Sydney on evening of 23 October, in Melbourne on 24 October, in Canberra on 7 November, in Perth from 6 November and in Brisbane from 7 November 2018.

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Quakers Australia: Climate Emergency & Species Extinction – Part 1

Quakers Australia At the Yearly Meeting in Hobart, 2019, Australian Quakers resolved to spiritually respond to the Climate Emergency and Spiritual Extinction. The meeting resolved, inter-alia, We are called to consider the world as an en-Spirited whole, to accept no boundary to repairing and sustaining the Earth for the future, and to appreciate more deeply the creative energy in all living things and life processes. We seek to mend what has been hurt, and to strengthen our courage to discern and bear witness to this spiritual care for the Earth.

Read moreQuakers Australia: Climate Emergency & Species Extinction – Part 1

Victorian government to mark Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary

Flinders Street Station
Flinders Street Station
The Victorian government has allocated $200,000 for the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak. Apart from funding 20 special events, iconic Melbourne landmarks will be lit up in saffron, to mark the historic occasion.

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Buddhism without Beliefs

Book Cover: Buddhism without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to AwakeningAt interfaith gatherings Buddhists are wheeled out to present their views on everything from nuclear weapons to the ordination of women and then scheduled to drone Tibetan chants at the evening slot for collective worship. This transformation of Buddhism into a religion obscures and distorts the encounter of the dharma with contemporary agnostic culture. The dharma in fact might well have more in common with Godless secularism than with the bastions of religion.

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Coalition’s religious discrimination bill condemned by state and territory commissions

ProtestersState and territory anti-discrimination commissions have revolted against the Coalition’s religious discrimination bill, warning it privileges religion over other rights and will cause “significant disruption” by overriding state laws.

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