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The Australian Council of Christians and Jews 2005 Annual General Meeting and Conference will be held on April 2, 2006 at the Sydney Jewish Museum commencing at 12 noon. While the actual business component of the annual general meeting is not expected to take more than the first half hour of the program, the remainder of the day's agenda promises to be a challenging one in more ways than one. The afternoon program will commence at 1 pm with a tour of the Jewish Museum, conducted by one of its authoritative guides, followed by the main topic theme of the conference – "Dialogue: where is it leading us?" which will be professionally moderated. This open forum will provide an opportunity for conference attendees to air their views and project their forward plans. A brief intermission for afternoon tea will precede the remainder of the day's program which will be taken up by a series of panel sessions. These will involve leading editors in a discussion on the role of the media in the interfaith world, followed by a panel of eminent theologians discussing today's issues which the different denominations are confronting. The final session will be made up of past presidents of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies discussing their experiences in interfaith relations and providing insights into the way in which communities need to be confronted. Three faith choral concert The afternoon program is planned to conclude at 6 pm. At 8.00 pm it is hoped to present a three-faith choral concert by the choirs from three denominations. Early bird registrations can already be made (Please fill in the registration form in your browser, print and mail it). This will be particularly valuable for interstate delegates who wish to have overnight accommodation arranged for them. Full program information will be detailed in early 2006.
ICCJ website serving Jewish Christian dialogue
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Skinner
and McAlpin Professor of Practical Theology at the Union Theological Seminary in New York, Professor
Dr. Mary Boys received the annual Sir Sigmund Sternberg Award on the opening evening's program of
the "Healing the World – Working together: Religion in Global Society" conference held
jointly by the American Jewish Committee and the Bernardin Center for Theology and Ministry also
held in Chicago prior to the ICCJ conference. Professor Dr. Boys was in Australia last month during
which she fulfilled a number of ecumenical engagements, including a Workshop for Religion Teachers
in Sydney and major addresses in Melbourne. Prof. Boys (pictured) came to Australia under the
auspices of the Sisters of Sion.
The Voice of Judaism in the Conversation of Mankind |
Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Sacks is Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations in the Commonwealth, He is the author of The Dignity of Difference (2002).
A
significant portion of my work is involved with other faiths. I cherish the relationships I have
made. Successive archbishops of Canterbury and Cardinal Archbishops of Westminster have become close
personal friends. The same is true of leaders of the Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and other religious
communities in Britain and throughout the Commonwealth.
These relationships have been important. They have allowed us, as religious leaders, to stand visibly together at times of tension and trial, of which there have been many in recent years.
The great faiths constitute different languages of perception, imagination and sensibility. They are only partially translatable into one another. This is a matter of degree. The various Latin- based languages have something in common, as do the Semitic tongues, ancient and modem. The same applies to religions. The Abrahamic monotheisms are more closely related to one another than they are to the mysticisms of the East.
Nonetheless, each is distinct. Each has its own resonances and nuances of meaning. There is, after Babel and before the end of days, no universal meta-language. This means that there will be some things we will never fully understand because they can be said only in a language which is not our own. If this applies to individual concepts, how much more so to the absolute and infinite Other, who can by definition only be partially compassed by any language at all.
There are at the same time things that are profoundly held in common. They are in no small measure constitutive of the human situation. We are vulnerable, therefore we need protection. Human life, in particular, is sacrosanct. Each person is unique, therefore irreplaceable, therefore deserving of safety, and indeed dignity. Our interests and desires conflict; therefore we need justice and the rule of law.
Thus it is that, men possessing quite different, even opposite metaphysical or religious outlooks, can converge, not by virtue of any identity of doctrine, but by virtue of an analogical similitude in practical principles, toward the same practical conclusions, and can share in the same practical secular faith, provided that they similarly revere, perhaps for quite diverse reasons, truth and intelligence, human dignity, freedom, brotherly love, and the absolute value of moral good.
We must therefore maintain a sharp and clear distinction between the human and temporal creed which lies at the root of common life and which is but a set of practical conclusions or of practical points of convergence - on the one hand; and on the other, the theoretical justifications, the conceptions of the world and of life, the philosophical or religious creeds which found, or claim to found, these practical conclusions in reason. (Man and the State, 111)
Another way of approaching it is to be found within Judaism itself. According to Maimonides, mitzvoth bein adorn la-Makom (commands between man and God) require a blessing. Those between persons (bein adorn le-chavero) do not. Following a suggestion of Rabbi Yitzhak Reines (he put it somewhat differently, but the point is the same), the reason for the distinction is that for commands between the person and God, the essential element is the intentional act (peulah). That intention must be made explicit in the form of a blessing, which constitutes a mental dedication of the act as one of service to God. As for commands between persons, what is essential is not the intentional act but its effect (niphal); thus no declaration of intent is necessary. Joining together to ameliorate the human condition is the meta-mitzvah "between man and man" and thus is unaffected by the specific religious reasons that lead us to acts of compassion and generosity, or the several narratives of which they are a part.
No faith needs to convert the world to prove its credentials
What I tried to show in my book, The Dignity of Difference, is that there is a delicate balance to be struck between our commonalities and our differences. Put simply: if we had nothing in common, we could not communicate. If we had everything in common, there would be nothing to say.
I prefer the word "conversation" to the term "dialogue." Dialogue carries with it echoes of the great works of Plato, in which Socrates' interlocutor is ultimately shown not to understand what he has previously thought he understood. That is not a Jewish view of dialogue, but I do not have the space here to say why and how.
This I know: that the word emunah, definitive of Jewish faith, means loyalty: God's loyalty to humanity and His covenantal people, and our loyalty to Him. God does not retract His word; He does not abrogate His covenant. That proposition is at the very core of prophetic consciousness, arid the fact that the Catholic Church has acknowledged this truth must be a matter for profound thanksgiving, not only on the part of Jews, but by everyone who cares for the life of the spirit and the future of the human race.
The only thing that in the long run secures admiration for a way of life and a way of seeing the world is to act lovingly to others, unconditionally, No faith needs to convert the world to prove its credentials seeking nothing in return.
Nor does a faith need to speak in universal terms to communicate universally. Quite to the contrary: our uniqueness is our universality. Shortly after the events of 9/11 I received the following e-mail from a stranger:
I am an American and a Christian and I work in San Jose, California. The events of September 11th traumatized me, as they did many around the world. The thought of death is scary but I was more frightened at the reailsation of abused, hungry, lonely and ill people, in every country, that I have forgotten. I am sorry I did that.
In the scary, sleepless nights that followed, I reflected on my life's purpose - how well I knew it as a child - and how I could recapture and live it. I knew I could only achieve that if I devoted myself once more to God and live the way he would want me to live. I prayed often but was apprehensive about going to church. I thought of you and your lectures and turned to Faith in the Future for help.
I found strength and understanding in what I read, especially that God has faith in us. This was a new concept to me. It made me take responsibility for my faith and it filled me with joy to think of faith as reciprocal.
I also understood the call to remember. Since I've read that, I have spent much time remembering my life and society and also the lives of others and their societies. I've remembered why I've made certain decisions in my life, like studying political sociology at university, and why. "Why" was to understand the Holocaust so that it never happened again. I made peace initiatives my career because of it, yet as my life got more comfortable, my passions lessened. Only through remembering have I come to realize that my skills and my time are needed to accomplish the goal I set out to achieve.
Finally, I took on board the importance of loving the stranger once again. I used to do that naturally, but I don't anymore. Now, I've reached out to many. I've started with my husband, family and colleagues and I'm now doing it again with the stranger (although there is much to be done).
So, why did I write to you? Well, forgive me for sounding melodramatic, but if I died that night, I would have died knowing my Lord again and remembering him. That is a great gift you've given. You reached out to the stranger, and that stranger was me.
Should I, a Jew, give thanks for having helped a Christian woman rediscover her faith? Should a Christian thank God for the opportunity of making a Jew a better, more believing Jew? Those are questions I long ago decided to leave to the world to come. In the meanwhile God has given us much to do, not least to learn to live graciously and generously together in a world that grows smaller every year.
I prefer the word "conversation" to the term "dialogue."
Religion in Australian public life |
A presentation to an ICCJ conference (July 2005) workshop by Sr. Dr. Marianne Dacy
A longstanding Australian assumption, particularly since the mid-1960's is that people in public life are entitled to the privacy of whatever religious views they might hold.
When a Prime Minister lends his support, and moves federal money, to schools whose teachers are required to believe in the literal truth of every part of the Bible (including, in some cases, creationism rather than evolution) and that all non-Christians are condemned to eternal damnation, voters can reasonably expect to know which particular aspects of that agenda he endorses.
Australian Prime Minister, John Howard and his senior ministers lecture church leaders about keeping out of politics and sticking to 'spiritual' matters (whatever those may be). Mainline churches have been silenced, for example, through accepting constraining government welfare contracts.
Australia's Christian Right: be alert (and alarmed)
Family First represents no serious incursion into Australian politics, as Graham Willett points out (New Matilda, 22 December and 27 October 2004); but the Christian Right should still concern us.
Religiously-committed politicians have always been in all parties. Liberals long assumed a quiet, establishment Anglicanism, or perhaps diligent, small-business-oriented Presbyterianism. The difference now is the kind of religion being embraced.
Both Hillsong and Christian City Church (the latter with on-site business school) promote a blessed-are-the-rich 'prosperity gospel' in which flashy cars and property empires become signs of God's blessing. They emphasise personal holiness rather than social justice, and individual acts of charity over state welfare. Such theology is a neat fit for a government that stresses market capitalism and privatised economics over social welfare and collective responsibility for one another.
Australia Now
Religion in Australia did not start off under the best conditions. Although church attendance was compulsory, the convicts lived in open immorality and religion was subject of ridicule. The first church built on Australian soil was even burnt by church members. This aggressive attitude towards the church can be explained by the fact that the clergy was considered to be part of the government and thus opposing the convicts. Only when free settlers arrived, the situation improved. However, for many settlers life in the bush was not easy. The harsh conditions of the outback produced both the famous Australian sense of mateship, and lax religious observance, for the next church often was days away. In 1833, exclusive Anglican establishment ended, and from the 1850s on, a decline in church attendance was recorded .
While in the 1950s church-going was "a big thing for people, getting dressed up on Sundays"), a shift to secular optimism occurred in the 1960s - humans seemed to be able to solve the problems of the world on their own. In the same decade, the Catholic Church was severely shaken by the Second Vatican Council, the church's attempt to come to terms with modernity, introducing a number of changes concerning dogma as well as religious practice. 140ff). Many Catholics had the impression that their religion had changed over night and felt confusion and despair .The 1970s brought a number of social and political innovations, triggered by the 1968 student revolts, but they also saw the collapse of secular optimism From the 1980s on, cultural diversity characterized Australian society and today there is a wide range of religious affiliations and practices.
Overall, during the last 200 years two major aspects of religion in Australian society can be observed: on the one hand, there exists a constancy of devotion and religious practice on the other hand, there never was a Golden Age of religion and Australians never liked talking about religious matters.
In Australia, there seems to exist a special spirit: according to Veronica Brady, it destroys religious habits, is sceptical and utilitarian, and values the present hour more than any visionary future. Australians lack a trust in institutions like the government, school, courts and the church. They prefer egalitarianism to hierarchies - which is not reflected in many forms of Christianity. Brady claims that in this country, a certain kind of anti-intellectualism creates suspicion of thinking beyond pragmatism - the fact that there are no faculties of theology at Australian public universities illustrates this attitude.
Rather than an intellectual challenge, religion is seen as some form of harmless recreation. Churches are empty, the numbers of candidates for the priesthood decrease, and the strong social role religion once had seems to be lost. A decline in religious orientation can also be observed on the individual level, along with a weakening of belief and a lessening of religious practice. The primary unit in society is no longer the family, but the individual (and religion has become a totally private matter. The people I talked to supported this notion very much.
Does this mean that religion and spirituality are vanishing from Australian society? Is secularisation an "all pervasive, unidirectional, irresistible force"?
Atheism has also become another acceptable choice for many Australians. While the decision of leaving church and declaring unbelief was a major decision in life only a few years ago, often affecting the relationship to one's family, nowadays religion has become absolutely optional.
Christianity clearly does not dominate Australian society any longer.
Aboriginal Religion
A key aspect of Australian aboriginal belief is the Dreaming. At the heart of this is the belief in powerful beings who arose out of the land, created or gave birth to people, plant life and animal life, and connected particular groups of people with particular regions and languages. The Dreaming beings continue to control the natural world, but their willingness to release the powers of fertility depends upon people continuing to perform certain rituals. People are believed to possess spirits which originate from the dreaming. As children grow up they undergo a variety of rites of passage which initiate them into adulthood.
History
Aborigines first arrived in Australia about 40,000 years ago at a time when there was a land bridge between Asia and Australia. Overtime much of the continent came to be occupied and cut off from Asia as a result of rising sea levels. Between 3,000-4,000 years ago the Aborigines began to use various stone tools. Over the past 2000 years the population grew significantly and adapted itself to the various environmental and climatic conditions of the continent. By the time the first Europeans settled in Australia in 1788 there were perhaps as many as a million aborigines in Australia and over 200 different spoken languages. The presence of Europeans had a devastating effect on the indigenous population. Today over two thirds of Australian aborigines would identify themselves as Christian.
Around the World |
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School body in US state of Kansas downgrades evolution teaching The education board of the US state of Kansas has tentatively approved new guidelines supported by some Christians that encourage public school teachers to teach a variety of theories about the origins of life, downgrading the centrality of the theory of evolution. On a 6-4 vote on 10 August, the Kansas Board of Education approved a draft of new standards that call for teachers to explore a variety of theories about the biological origins of life. Direct sign language training for church ministry to start in UK Polish church reports vocations' upsurge after Pope's death |
Tourists gazing at Pope's house torment tenant; now to be museum Only four months into his pontificate the house where Pope Benedict XVI was born in Marktl am Inn, Bavaria, has become hot property as a tourist attraction. Tourists converge daily on the little Bavarian town to look at the house. Some pray in front of it, but others will ring the doorbell and try to enter. Yet it is not the Pope's house. It's the private residence of Claudia Dandl, a 39- year-old mother of two who is a physiotherapist. She has had to disconnect the doorbell. And to give peace to herself and her children she wants to sell the house as soon as she can. Palestinians look carefully at who will be next Orthodox patriarch Jewish groups criticize disciples for demand to tear down Israeli wall |
Uniting Minister points to the children |
During last week's Council of Christians and Jews Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) commemoration, Uniting Church cleric, Rev. Bill Crews made an impassioned plea for denominational tolerance and mutual understanding. Pointing to the boys of St. Andrews School Choir. Rev. Crews said the tragedy which befell the children of European Jewry must never befall the children of Australia.
"I have seen the horror pictures of some of the 1 million Jewish children, victims of the Shoah and I see these boys (the choir participated in the Martin Place ceremony) and I am thankful that we have an organisation such as the Council of Christians and Jews for striving for dialogue and tolerance", he said.
The event again drew an audience of approximately 100 members and supporters of the Council, as well as hundreds of lunchtime passers by who stopped to observe the prayers and the blowing of the shofar by the Great Synagogue's chief minister, Rabbi David Lawrence. Representatives of the Anglican, Catholic and Greek Ortodox churches were joined by members of the Jewish community including representatives of the NSW Board of Deputies in the moving ceremony conducted by the Council's president, Fr. Joseph Sobb, SJ.
In part of the service, Fr. Sobb said: "We remember that night of darkness and fear that swept the heartland of Christian Europe like a scourge. We remember those who were persecuted: Jews for being Jews. We remember those who spoke out, brave souls, who tried to save the world. And we remember the silence! How many stood aside, mute and unconcerned, forgetting the divine commandment: "You shall not stand idle while your neighbour bleeds"
Commenting
on the Council's ecumenical work, Fr. Sobb confirmed that one of the organisation's major tenets was
the promotion of education in those fundamental ethical teachings common to Christianity and Judaism
which relate to respect and understanding between people of different creeds for the benefit of the
whole Australian community.
"We need to delve further into the historical causes of conflict between people of different creeds to enable them to appreciate and respect each other", he added.
A symbolic breaking of glass to commemorate the November 1938 destruction of the synagogues of Germany was performed by the Consul General of the US, Mr. Stephen T. Smith while the Kaddish was recited by Rabbi Raymond Apple.
Picture: The shofar resounds in Martin Place: Great Synagogue chief minister, Rabbi David Lawrence and members of St. Andrews School choir.
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Award winning film ?I am Joseph your brother? ? now available on DVD with study guide ? marking the 40th anniversary of Nostra Aetate. Available from ICCI offices. More details:
The award winning film ?I am Joseph your brother? is now available on DVD format as well as video. An accompanying Learning Resource/Study Guide is also available. The guide is designed to enhance educational programs in Jewish-Christian relations that take place in a variety of settings.
It provides a systematic an substantive survey and analysis of all sections of the film and enables Jewish and Christian educators to make us of this film as a learning resource in a wide variety of creative and educational ways.
The film was produced by Tal El Productions of Jerusalem for the ICCI in association with the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and was broadcast on the American ABC Television network . Since then it has been screened at film festivals in Italy and the US.
Pope?s visit to Israel
During the 1950s, Pope John XXIII met with a delegation of Jews in the Vatican and said ?I am Joseph, your brother?.
This was the beginning of a new relationship between Jews and Catholics. But, was his intention to say that we are long-lost brothers?
Inspired by the visit of Pope John Paul II to Israel in the 2000, ?I am Joseph your brother? assesses and reflects on the changes that have occurred in the often difficult and turbulent relationship that has existed for centuries between Jews and Christians, Judaism and Catholicism and, more recently between the State Jews of Israel and the Vatican.
This troubled relationship centred around sensitive issues such as the Holocaust and the many accusations made against the Jews in the past such as the blood libel.
?I am Joseph your brother? discusses the complex issues behind these questions and investigates the significant changes that have been made in recent decades. The changes which are explored include ?Nostra Aetate? documents dating back to 1964, recognition of the State of Israel (1994) and the WE REMEMBER document which grapples with the role played by members of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust (1998)
New crossroads
?I am Joseph your brother? explores these controversial issues with sensitivity and insight. The film makes use of interviews with dignitaries, religious leaders and educators ? both Catholic and Jewish.
The visuals include footage never before seen from the Vatican Archives and powerful, emotional moments from the Pope?s visit to Israel, including scenes of the Pope at the Western Wall, the holiest of Jewish religious sites and at Yad Vashem, the Israeli national memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.
At these new crossroads, symbolised by the new millennium, it is time to take note and to examine how these changes will affect the age-old relationship and how these changes will affect the age old relationship and how it will affect the perceptions of Christians and Jews everywhere.
?I am Joseph your brother?, a 59 minute documentary, examines what comprises this new relationship, the expectations, the issues and the hopes.
