The annual Zoom event of Prayers and Meditations for our Earth and for the United Nations Climate Change Conferences have been well supported. You are invited to join our upcoming silent meditation session dedicated to prayers and reflections for our Earth and in support of the UN Climate Conference, COP29. This will begin on Tuesday Mornings at 07:00 commencing on 6th August, 2024 … Australian Eastern Standard Time. The first session and meditation will be led by Bishop Philip Huggins.
UNEP – A global foresight report on planetary health and human wellbeing
Navigating New Horizons: A global foresight report on planetary health and human wellbeing seeks to attend to the future and the needs of global civilisation. To help navigate current and future uncertainty and disruptive change, while effectively delivering on its mandate, the United Nations Environment Program – UNEP – has been implementing an institutionalized approach to strategic foresight and horizon scanning with the view to developing an anticipatory and future-oriented culture – to ensure planetary health and human wellbeing.
Overcoming the silencing effect of racism
Victoria University launched, Understanding reporting barriers and support needs for those experiencing racism in Victoria, a new report about the damaging effects of racism, why those impacted often stay silent, and ways to improve anti-racism support across Victoria. Racism is a widespread experience among many multicultural communities and there are certain places in Australia where it’s more likely to happen.
Embracing Otherness: The Importance of Sharing Wisdom
Sharing wisdom across differences can be challenging, as it requires empathy, humility, and a willingness to engage in meaningful dialogue. It demands that we set aside our preconceptions and biases, creating space for genuine understanding and learning, writes Dr Adis Duderija of Griffith University in New Age Islam.
Pope asks world’s religions to push for ethical AI development
Pope Francis called on representatives from the world’s religions to unite behind the defense of human dignity in an age that will be defined by artificial intelligence.
“I ask you to show the world that we are united in asking for a proactive commitment to protect human dignity in this new era of machines,” the pope wrote in a message to participants of a conference on AI ethics which hosted representatives from 11 world religions.
Social Cohesion and Faith Communities
Religions for Peace Australia conducted the 2024 Annual General Meeting in Canberra on 12 June, 2024. Guest Speaker at the Annual General Meeting was Ms. Anthea Hancocks of the Scanlon Foundation. The Scanlon Foundation in collaboration with Monash University produces the annual Scanlon-Monash Index of Social Cohesion, an important document, which, since inception in 2007, has mapped the measures of Belonging, Worth, Participation, Acceptance and Rejection and Social Justice and Equity in Australia. Ms Anthea Hancocks delivered an address on Social Cohesion and Faith Communities.
Youth Day Toolkit: “Young people and Their Voices from the Warzones”
The World Council of Churches has released a second edition of the “Ecumenical International Youth Day 2024 Toolkit: Young People and Their Voices from the Warzones.”
Engaging Men from Multicultural and Faith-based Communities in Primary Prevention
This guide has been produced as part of the Supporting Multicultural Communities to Prevent Family Violence Program. This resource has been developed as part of the Connecting Communities program, a partnership between the Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health (MCWH) and Safe and Equal to support the learning and professional development needs of the Connecting Communities network. This network is a group of organisations working with multicultural and faith-based communities to prevent violence against women in Victoria since 2022, and is funded through the Victorian Government, Supporting Multicultural Communities to Prevent Family Violence Program.
Protecting our World for Future Generations: An Interfaith Call to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
This World Federalist Movement – International Center for MultiGenerational Legacies of Trauma Transnational Working Group on Values, faith-based perspectives and global governance joins ICMGLT and Voices for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons in inviting you to this webinar on July 17. Peace on Earth demands an end to nuclear weapons. This is an interfaith call to world peace.
Outgoing head of Human Rights Commission calls for human rights act
Rosalind Croucher, the outgoing president of the Australian Human Rights Commission, has called for the creation of a national human rights act.
In an address to the National Press Club of Australia, Ms Croucher said that she had become increasingly convinced of the need for the act in recent years, arguing it would lead Parliament to “consider more directly how their lawmaking affects people’s freedoms and rights”.
There has long been a call from human rights experts for Australia to take this action as it is the only Western liberal democracy without a legislated human rights act.
Listening to Country: An Indigenous Theology and Spirituality series
There is much wisdom, knowledge, and direction for living to be discovered in listening to country. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in these lands now called Australia know this and seek to live deeply connected to country and to share that knowing with others. In Session 2, Professor Dr Anne Pattel-Gray will present Aboriginal Spirituality and Connection to Country on Sunday 11 August 2024, 2 – 4 pm.
Yes proponents analyse defeat of Voice referendum
A failure of process, a shift in the nation’s temper, a lack of reliable information and the city-regions divide were among factors contributing to the defeat of the Voice to Parliament referendum, leading Yes proponents said at the launch of two new books at the Australian Catholic University on 2 July.
