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.
