To
continue the close encounters between the Muslims and Christians who participated
in the Harmony Project, a dinner was organised on the 19th of March 2004 in
order to launch the book titled "Sustained Dialogue: Close encounters of
the Muslim Christian Kind" as well.
The evening commenced with a formal welcome by Monica Vaughan who also read
the letter written by Minister Gary Hardgrave, which mainly consisted of his
support and positive thoughts about the project as a whole. Next Amine Atalay
summed up what the project meant to her as "an encounter of the spiritual
kind, a connection to spiritual light and a step towards unity". On her
groups first encounter evening, she departed with thoughts of "inspiration,
the sincerity of the environment and the passion displayed of all participants
for true friendship". The sense of "unity gently touched all our hearts"
she said. In her talk she inspired us with the statement that "only through
unity can true peace enter our lives".
Following
Amine Grahame Ellis spoke of his experience being one of "acknowledging
knowledge of a spiritual dimension" and how, when his Muslim friends were
praying, and the Christians were observing, they got caught up in "the
spiritual miracle of prayer". Grahame also put forward that when people
meet together to share what's in their soul; it is this that will lead to harmony.
He inspired us with his experience and perspective of "Christian and Muslims
as being one". The video that was made during the process of the project
was later viewed, which included pre and after thoughts of expectations about
the project by participants, insightful information, ideas, discussions and
highlights of the 6 topics that were presented by the Christians and Muslims.
After dinner, which provided a great opportunity for guests to converse with
each other, Mehmet Saral described the project's establishment issues, the inspirations
for its initiation, organisation of the groups/participants/meetings and some
of the learnings that took place. He emphasised that these learnings not only
led for the participants to understand each other's faith but that it led each
to understand their own faith as well. He also pointed towards the major outcomes
that were achieved like developing trust, fostering positive attitudes and the
development of the book which covered the 6 topics that were explored during
the encounters meetings.
The evening
continued with Zuleyha Keskin and Monica Vaughan thanking all the 50 + participants
and referred to them as "real heroes". The book was then officially
launched by Reverend Alastair Christie who stated that "we need to keep
on talking and listening, be faithful to our own faith traditions.. and as such
we will be launching something for people to follow". He spoke of the Australian
government supporting these kinds of projects and passed on Laurie Ferguson's
good wishes that may projects like this continue in the future.
The evening finally concluded with a joint prayer, with all guests sending peace
and blessings to each other and the air was filled with the hope that these
close encounters will become sustained dialogues as ideas for future projects
were proposed.