As part of Human Rights Week 2014, Religions for Peace (Tas Branch) will host a Multifaith gathering entitled ‘Faiths Respecting Refugees’ on Sunday 30 November 2.30-4.00pm at the UTAS Multifaith Centre, TUU Building, Churchill Ave, Sandy Bay. This will be the last gathering for 2014.
The keynote speaker will be Fr Shammi Perera, originally from Sri Lanka, now the chaplain caring for refugees, based at St Mary’s Cathedral, Hobart. The Karen choir from Myanmar will also join us, as will a number of speakers from different faiths, sharing the wisdom of their traditions with respect to caring for refugees.
Welcome
The keynote speaker at our November Gathering will be Fr Shammi Perera, who is originally from Sri Lanka and now the chaplain with responsibility for the pastoral care of migrants and refugees, based at St Mary’s Cathedral, Hobart.
Fr Shammi Perera will speak about the treatment of strangers (which includes immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees) in faith traditions and we will spend time sharing readings and prayers/meditations both for those forced to take refuge and for those creating the conditions that force others to take refuge.
G20 Interfaith Summit
Dr Brian Adams, the Director of the Centre for Interfaith and Cultural Dialogue at Griffith University, who organised the conference has been invited to formally affiliate his group with Religions for Peace Australia as the Queensland representative organisation.
Prof. Des Cahill, Chair, Religions for Peace Australia gave a presentation on Interfaith Dialogue and the Social Dividend. You can download a PDF of this talk by Prof. Des Cahill here.
An archive of all presentations at the G20 Interfaith Summit can be found here.
Wesley Hobart Museum
We are currently working on our City Sanctuaries project with Arts Tasmania, who awarded us a grant of Roving Curator time under its Small Museums program for 2014. The grant is auspiced by the UCA Property Trust (Tas) and will be acquitted by the Wesley Hobart Museum under is Terms of Reference in about March next year.
CITY SANCTUARIES is a community heritage project, presently being undertaken by Wesley Hobart Museum and Arts Tasmania to foster public appreciation of Hobart’s significant and diverse urban sanctuaries and its spiritual landscape. Having an interfaith and broad public focus, City Sanctuaries is working to identify common ground that is able to support and nurture a shared appreciation of the different and distinctive features of the city’s sanctuary places. A short provisional project statement can be found on the Hobart UCA Churches website post City Sanctuaries essential to forming “new modes of neighbourliness” . Find out more here.
Hobart Buddhist Retreat: Taking Refuge 2015
Venerable Acharya Zasep Tulku Rinpoche will be visiting Tasmania January 2015 and will conduct two retreats. Interstate visitors welcome, retreat is in Devenport, can be accessed by driving and taking Spirit of Tasmania Ferry …
Dorje Ling Retreat Centre:
- Three Principal Paths: Arrive 4 Jan, retreat starts 5 Jan and finishes lunchtime 10 Jan
Members: $510(full)/420(conc)
Non-members: $555(full)/465(conc) - Green Tara initiation and retreat: Arrive 10 Jan, retreat starts 11 Jan and finishes lunchtime 14 Jan
Members: $340(full)/280(conc)
Non-members: $385(full)/325(conc) - Both retreats (10 nights)
Members: $850(full)/700(conc)
Non-members: $895(full)/745(conc)
Download a flyer for this event here
Registration and more information here
Racism, It Stops with Me
CCommissioner of Police, Mr Darren Hine, CEO of Ambulance Tasmania, Mr Dominic Morgan, Chief Fire Officer, Mr Mike Brown, Acting Director of the State Emergency Service, Mrs Andrea Heath will participate in a Question and Answer forum with the Australian Racial Discrimination Commissioner, Dr Tim Soutphommasane. Afterwards the participants will address the commitments to the goals of the Australian Human Rights Commission RACISM. IT STOPS WITH ME Campaign. 10 am Friday 5 December, Hobart Town Hall, Macquarie St.
More info and RSVP here
Coda
This month’s Coda comes from New Norfolk:
St Matthew’s Anglican Church, New Norfolk
The church, which has been changed significantly over the years, was consecrated in 1828 by Archdeacon Scott from Sydney. It has been the subject of numerous alterations. In 1833 extensive additions made it a much more impressive building. A tower was added in 1870 and in 1894, after a period of energetic fund raising, the chancel was added and the windows, roof and transepts were altered. It is clearly not the same church which was built on the site in 1823. All that is left of the original church are the walls and flagged floor of the nave and part of the western transept. Perhaps the most interesting feature of the church are the excellent stained glass windows.
In peace,
Terry
Convenor RfP Tasmania Branch
6272 6521
Religions for Peace Tasmania
