Religions for Peace Tas Branch conducted an Interfaith Gathering for Human Rights Week for 2013. It was held at the Friends’ Meeting House on Sunday 1 December from 2.30-4.00pm. Guest Speaker was Sue Ennis, national secretary of Religions for Peace Australia who spoke on ‘Respecting Refugees’.
The theme of the gathering was to honour and spiritually support refuges everywhere. One of the most significant issues in the world at present is the enormous numbers of homeless and displaced people fleeing war, unrest, climate change … even in the peaceful state of Tasmania there are those seeking refuge from domestic violence. People of all the world’s faiths are refugees.
The gathering was led by Rev Bob Faser, from the Uniting Church, who, among other duties, works as the Communications Officer of the Tasmanian Council of Churches. It was opened with a Welcome to Country by Kris Schaffer, an Aboriginal artist and horticulturalist, from the Baha’i faith. The choir Sisongke hit just the right note, with songs of peace and harmony (http://www.sisongke.org/) at the start of the gathering. The keynote speaker was Sue Ennis, Secretary of Religions for Peace Australia. Sue specially came from Melbourne to speak about aspects of her PhD research in which she examined the faith experiences of refugees in the process of resettling in Australia.
Among those speaking were Mary, from the Heather Kirkpatrick documentary Mary Meets Mohammad, (http://www.marymeetsmohammad.com/about/about-the-film) and Heetham, an Iraqi refugee and student in the TasTafe group, Students Against Racism.
Among those who shared prayers from their faith traditions were RosGoodsell, Venerables Tenzin Drolma and Thich Thong Phap, Rev Kaye Paice, Mr Rajdeep Singh, Mrs PatmalarAmbikapathy, who was the first Children’s Commissioner in Tasmania, Pym Trueman, who has been honoured many times, including with the Order of Australia, for her service to interfaith in Tasmania and Terry Sussmilch.
A special highlight was that this gathering was the first opportunity to meet of two of the founders of the Religions for Peace Tasmania Branch, Pym Trueman and Rev Bob Faser, since they established the organisation in 1999.
Representatives of Faiths at the Human Rights Week Interfaith Gathering
