Tasmania – August 2015

Tasmania Logo

The next gathering of Religions for Peace Tasmania Branch has been cancelled due the unavailability of the invited guest. However, we encourage you to save the date for Sunday 20 September 3.00-4.30pm at the UTAS Multifaith Centre, TUU Building, Churchill Ave., Sandy Bay, when Religions for Peace and the UTAS Multifaith Chaplaincy will be holding a gathering entitled: Remembering Peace: a celebration of the UN International Day of Peace in the Anzac Centenary Year.

Welcome

The next gathering of Religions for Peace Tasmania Branch has been cancelled due the unvailabiltiy of the invited guest. Our next public function will be the observance of UN World Day of Peace, where we will assemble at UTAS on Sunday 20 September 3.00-4.30pm … and conduct an event, em>Remembering Peace: a celebration of the UN International Day of Peace in the Anzac Centenary Year.


Quaker House

You are invited to spend an evening with Brendan McKeague at the Quaker Meeting House, 5 Boa Vista Rd., North Hobart, on Tuesday 4 August, from 6.00pm. The event is hosted by the Tasmanian Quakers.

Brendan McKeague has spent many decades working in active peace-making and conflict transformation, especially with individuals, groups and organisations. He is an excellent, flexible and inspiring speaker. He has long devoted himself to helping groups explore difference, conflict and complexity and to find productive and satisfying ways forward.

The evening will begin at 6.00pm with an opportunity to meet Brendan informally at a shared meal, so bring a plate if you are able.

From 7.00pm Brendan will briefly tell us about his journey to the present time including his passion for nonviolence, active peace-building and conflict transformation; his learning and understanding around complexity, collaboration, self-organisation, emergent design and co-learning; the tools and techniques he uses, such as Five Steps, Open Space, Appreciative Enquiry, Restorative Practices and Communities of Practice

We will then share our reflections on ‘Community’ in the light of the curiosity emerging from what we have heard. The phrases ‘Community and complexity, diversity and unity’ and ‘What are we learning as we listen to each other?’ might help to give us focus.

Brendan’s origins are Irish-Catholic and he has a deep and wide-ranging spirituality. He is based in Western Australia and is an experienced facilitator using the techniques noted above. He will be in Tasmania primarily to facilitate two major Open Space events. He recently co-founded ‘The Conflict Company’ and is developing new skills to help groups in conflict find ways forward. He is a member of the Open Space Institute of Australia and the International Training Network for Open Space Technology.

For further information contact Peter Wilde on wildepetbar@bigpond.com


Dances of Universal Peace

Dancing is on Tues the 4th August , starting at 7. 30pm, at the new venue. It will be upstairs at Wesley Hall , 58 Melville St. There is parking in the car park. You will need to enter through the side entrance via the car park and head up the stairs.

  • First Tuesday of each month
  • 7.30 – 9.30pm
  • Enquiries ph 62 393499 or 0400051963

Pax Christi Conference

You are invited – as part of the Gallipoli Centenary Peace Campaign to the Pax Christi annual conference 28 – 30 August. The theme of the conference is A World without Weapons, a Vision and a Challenge.

The theme of the conference is: A World without Weapons, a Vision and a Challenge

We seek

  • To explore the possibilities and challenges of a World without Weapons, spiritually and politically.
  • To hear from people who are already “living the dream.”
  • To consider key challenges the issue poses for people of faith in Australia and Pax Christi in particular.

We feel, having done a lot of stuff around the Gallipoli Centenary the time has come to challenge to fact of war itself as part of the human DNA.

Download a Flyer for this event


Emergencies Ministry volunteers

Our next 2-day Personal Support Training and 1-day Refresher courses are in Hobart on October 12 and 13, and Devonport later that same week (days TBA).

I’m pleased to announce that our trainer for these courses is the VCC Emergencies Ministry’s State Manager, Stuart Stuart. The VCC has recently updated its training, and Stuart will present the latest course for us here in Tassie.

This is a wonderful opportunity to learn from someone who heads up a large and significant Emergencies Ministry program – with 1700 volunteers – and who has 25+ years of experience in chaplaincy and emergency management. Stuart has a Masters Degree in Emergency Management, and other relevant background includes Program Management with Berry Street, Project Management with the Department of Human Services, volunteer firefighting with the CFA, and private counselling specialising in trauma.

So, come and join us for a Refresher – or you can even do the 2-day course again if you want. That said, numbers are limited and preference for the 2-day course will be given to those who have not yet completed the training. For more information, contact Gus at Tasmania Council of Churches.


Visit by Fr Patrick McInerney:

Fr Patrick McInerney, a Columban missionary priest, is the Director of the Columban Mission Institute and the Coordinator of its Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations. He is also a member of Religions for Peace NSW Branch.

He worked in Pakistan for more than twenty years, where he was involved in a variety of ministries. He has studied at the Pontifical Institute for the Study of Arabic and Islamics in Rome and has a Doctorate in Theology from the Australian Catholic University.

Fr Patrick lectures in Islam and Interreligious Dialogue at the Catholic Institute of Sydney and the Broken Bay Institute’s faculty for Mission and Culture.

He is a member of the Australian Catholic Council for Ecumenism and Interreligious Relations, a board member of the Australian Catholic University’s Centre for Inter-religious Dialogue and on the Executive of the NSW branch of Religions for Peace.

Fr Patrick attends interfaith and multi-faith conferences, and gives talks and lectures o
n Islam, Christian-Muslim Relations, Interreligious Relations and mission related topics to a wide variety of audiences.

Fr Patrick a strong believer in ecumenism and would be happy for representatives of other religions to speak at the talks he is giving. He is also happy to meet up with any ministers or groups who would like a chat.

When and Where he will be talking:

  • Topic – Building a culture of peace and understanding in a multi-religious Australia.
  • North West: 17th August. 7.30 – Forum at Ulverstone Catholic Church Meeting room.
  • North 18th August. 7.30 – Forum at St. Patricks College Chapel
  • South 19th August. 7.30 – Forum at St. Mary’s Cathedral Meeting Room

For more information, contact Margaret Donaghy,
Resource Officer
Tasmanian Catholic Justice and Peace Commission
tcjpc@aohtas.org.au http://www.hobart.catholic.org.au/sites/TCJPC/TCJPC.html


Launceston News

From Rev. Shari in Launceston:

The topic for our August meeting will be:

The Art of Sacred Practice – Part 2. Every second of the day the sacred is expressed in a multitude of ways – through ritual, prayer, meditation, dance, song, communion and so on. This month, as requested, we continue exploring this topic in an effort to understand more about the way the Divine is accessed, known and realised.

Inner reflection, inclusive prayer and sacred music will open and close our gathering. All such offerings are welcome. When: Ida Birchall Room, 36-38 Paterson St. Inquiries 0431909172

Monday 16th August. 1-2.30 pm. Launceston Interfaith/Spiritual Group, Where: Ida Birchall Room, 36-38 Paterson St

For more details PH: 0431909172 E: interfaithtasmania@gmail.com


From Zenit:

Year of Reconciliation Begins in Africa

The Year of Reconciliation in Africa opened on Wednesday with a solemn Eucharistic Celebration in Accra, Ghana, convoked by the Symposium of the Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM). The theme chosen for this event is “A Reconciled Africa for Peaceful Coexistence.” The Year will close on July 29, 2016, during the 17th Plenary Assembly of the organization, in Angola.

SECAM was instituted by Blessed Paul VI in 1969 during his pastoral visit to Uganda. It is made up of 37 National Episcopal Conferences and eight Regional African Conferences.

The convocation of this Year of Reconciliation is in response to the invitation that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI made in 2011 to the African Episcopates in his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation “Africae Munus”, to promote “a Year of Reconciliation of continental reach, to ask God for special forgiveness for all the evils and offenses that human beings have inflicted on one another in Africa, so that persons and groups that have been wounded are reconciled in the Church and in the whole of society,” reported the Vatican Information Service.

In the document, the Pope wrote that it would be “an Extraordinary Jubilee Year during which the Church in Africa and in the neighboring Islands would give thanks with the universal Church and pray to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially the gifts of reconciliation, justice and peace.”

The Exhortation, signed by Benedict XVI on November 19, 2011 in Cotonou, Benin, during his Apostolic Journey to that country, sealed the 2nd Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops, held in 2009 in the Vatican, and whose theme was, precisely, “The Church in Africa at the Service of Reconciliation, Justice and Peace.”

Thus, Archbishop Charles Palmer Buckle of Accra  sent a letter, on behalf of the President of SECAM, Angolan Bishop Gabriel Mbilingi CSSP, to all the African Episcopal Conferences inviting them to organize during this Year “programs and initiatives of reconciliation in collaboration with the respective Commissions of Justice and Peace in their countries.” He also exhorted the Continent’s Bishops to make a “special collection” in their dioceses on a Sunday of their choice, for the Second Day of SECAM, which was instituted two years ago during the 16th Assembly of that organization, to finance projects of evangelization, promotion of justice and peace and Catholic media.

Coda

Regard the photograph below, quite possibly a rare event, worldwide. Snow has fallen across beaches in southern Tasmania.

Mt Olympus at Lake St Clair, Tasmania

Perhaps snow is not altogether anything new; snow down to sea level may not be anything new. But we take the time to wonder, to observe the environs of this world we create with our thoughts, words and actions. At times we can recall the psalms and the beauty and wonder of this world. At other times, the Vedas remind us that there is a wisdom and a being-ness within us all which is far beyond the reaches of our senses yet, is embedded deeply within all that we see, hear, touch, taste and smell.

We may even recall the Buddha to mind, with his admonition to walk the middle path. Do footprints in the snow ever reveal that middle path? Perhaps for those who trek the Himalaya, they may tell of a pilgrim with sacred hopes.

Perhaps the Buddha was telling us of the Oneness of human experience, that singularity that Irenaeus spoke of in his best-known book, Adversus Haereses: The glory of the Divine is the human person fully alive. Irenaeus went on to say more: vita autem hominus, visio Dei: in order to be fully alive, the human must see the Divine.


In peace,
Terry
Convenor RfP Tasmania Branch
6272 6521

Religions for Peace Tasmania

Religions for Peace Tasmania