The 8th Inter-religious Abraham Conference was held at the historic setting of Mary MacKillop Place on Sunday afternoon, the 1st of August 2010 [Affinity's photostream]. This year’s theme focussed on the significant contributions the three Abrahamic faiths have made to the development of modern society in an aptly titled conference - “Abrahamic Faiths : Contribution to Society and Relevance Today”.
This conference was organised by the following 5 organisations:
1. Affinity Intercultural Foundation
2. Columban Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations
3. NSW Jewish Board of Deputies
4. Sydney Catholic Archdiocese:
Read news item from Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese, 6 Aug 2010
5. Uniting Church Synod of NSW/ACT
The conference was opened by Katrina Lee, Director of Catholic Communications for the Archdiocese of Sydney, former television journalist and Academic. Afterwards Sr Giovanni Farquer, Interfaith Coordinator for the Sydney Catholic Archdiocese, then welcomed everyone to Mary MacKillop Place.
This year’s keynote address was presented by Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence from the Great Synagogue of Sydney [download paper]. He touched on the importance of respecting and loving each other whilst embracing the stranger. His key messages were :
1. To teach and love the one true God.
2. To conduct ourselves justly in His name.
3. To study His ways and educate our families in his teaching.
4. To show compassion to our neighbour and love to the stranger.
5. To respect the rule of law and to pursue the path of peace.
6. And in that we perfect our world.
Prof Neil Ormerod from the ACU was the first respondent [download paper] to go after Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence. In his response, he focussed on the strengths that each of the three Abrahamic faiths bring to the table and how we “need to open up the dialogue in our society around questions of forgiveness, compassion, mercy, reconciliation, reparation and conversion of heart that speak not of the idealism of our traditions, but their realism about the human condition.”
Dr Salih Yucel from Monash University was the Muslim respondent [download paper]. His talk focussed “on the necessity of faith from the intellectual, psychological, ethical and spiritual perspective”. He also summarised the contribution of the Islamic faith in developing civilisations throughout history.
The conference format made provisions for personal interaction by allowing for group table discussions. There were fifteen tables comprised of ten people from the faith traditions to discuss and ponder over the following questions :
Each table produced headline statements [Table Discussion Outcomes] which were typed on a computer, which was projected to the screen. Participants were able to witness each table’s feedback on the three questions listed above. Some key statements from the table discussions were:
1. We must be humble in order to enter into true dialogue. We must recognise our mistakes
2. Humility must ground us in moral realism rather than our own ideology
3. We have something to offer the world, we must be brave to share it
4. Sow seeds of hope for the future
The general feedback from the participants were positive. All the speakers received great commendations from the participants and were very pleased they had a chance to vocalise their views and engage in dialogue with others.
At the end of the program Affinity President Mr Mehmet Saral, who was also the Chairperson for the Abraham Conference Steering Committee, gave a Vote of Thanks. He acknowledged all 3 speakers as well as MC Katrina Lee with a certificate of appreciation.
