2020 World Interfaith Harmony Week Lecture


University of Melbourne Chaplaincy and Religions for Peace Australia – Victoria Branch, invite you to attend a you to a FREE lecture on Tuesday 4th February 2020 on ‘Pope Francis: His Interfaith and Environmental Perspectives’.


World Interfaith Harmony Week: an annual event observed during the first week of February commencing in 2011. The week provides a platform—one week in a year—when all interfaith groups and other groups of goodwill can show the world what interfaith harmony, co-operation and understanding may achieve.

Pope Francis:

The Environment
The problem is urgent. “Never have we so hurt and mistreated our common home as we have in the last two hundred years.”  We must all change our day-to-day actions to live more sustainably.  “Reducing greenhouse gases requires honesty, courage and responsibility.”  On a larger scale, our leaders must be held to account. “Those who will have to suffer the consequences . . . will not forget this failure of conscience and responsibility.”

Interfaith Relations
Tensions between the Vatican and Muslims flared briefly after Pope Francis’ predecessor, Benedict XVI, delivered a 2006 lecture that many Muslims saw as critical of Islam. Benedict then worked to repair the breach. Since becoming pope in 2013, Francis has traveled often to non-Christian lands—including Egypt, Bangladesh and Burma—appealing for religious pluralism, peaceful coexistence, and respect for human rights. In his visit to the UAE, he said it was incumbent upon Muslims and Christians to “build a future together or there will be no future.”

Event Details

Event: United Nations World Interfaith Harmony Week Lecture 2020
Program: Lecture by David Schütz, Pope Francis: His Interfaith and Environmental Perspectives
Hosts: University of Melbourne Chaplaincy, Religions for Peace – Victoria Branch
Location: Carrillo Gantner Theatre, B-02 (Basement), Sidney Myer Asia Centre, University of Melbourne, 761 Swanston St, Parkville
Date: Tuesday 4th February 2020
Time: 5.30-7.30pm
RSVP: Online at Try Booking or contact Sue Ennis: wcrpaust@iinet.net.au

 

David Schütz

David Schütz

David Schütz has been the Executive Officer of the Ecumenical and Interfaith Commission for the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne since 2002. He is also Sessional Tutor at Australian Catholic University. David was a Lutheran pastor from 1992 to 2001 and was received into the Catholic Church in 2003. For many years a member of the Victorian Council of Churches’ Faith and Order Commission (both as a Lutheran and a Catholic), David served as Chair of the Commission from 2012 to 2015. A foundation member of the Jewish Christian Muslim Association, he served as Secretary of JCMA from 2009 to 2012. His theological interests focus on ecumenism, church history and liturgical theology. He is an adult faith educator for Anima Education, a cantor in his local parish and at the Cathedral.