Sister Shirley Sedawie

The passion and dedication to her Sionian vocation, in witnessing to 'God's faithful love for the Jewish People' (Sion Constitution 13) has been recognised in Sister Shirley Sedawie's 2005 Queen's Birthday Order of Australia award.

The Sion Sisters' responsibility to promote understanding and justice for the Jewish community, and to keep alive in the Church 'the consciousness that in some mysterious way Christianity is linked to Judaism from its origin to its final destiny' (Constitution 14) has been central to her calling.

Sister Shirley has spent 40 years of her life specialising in this field. Returning from Israel in 1962, she opened a pioneer Centre for Jewish/Christian dialogue in Box Hill two years later. At the time she was midway through a BA degree at Melbourne University, where she majored in Semitic Languages and Middle Eastern Thought. She went on to complete her Masters degree in 1970, basing her thesis on 'The Beginnings of the Conflict between Christians and Jews'.

As her work developed, the Shalom Centre for Jewish/Christian Relations opened in Kew in 1970, where she welcomed an increasing number of Christian groups seeking knowledge about Judaism and/or Biblical Studies. Many Jewish migrants arriving in Australia after World War II, still marked by the traumatic experiences of the Holocaust, found in Sister Shirley a lifelong friend.

In 1977 she became the director of an international team at the Centre for Jewish Christian Relations in Rome, and was responsible for the publication of its magazine Sidic, circulating in 26 countries around the world. This led to further involvement in ecumenical and interfaith studies, and liaising with students taking relevant courses at the Gregorian University.

She has been an eminent member of the Council of Christians and Jews in Victoria since its inauguration in 1985, and an Honorary Life Member. 20 years on she sees it fulfilling her hopes of closer and better relationships between members of the two great faiths. Every member of this Australia-wide movement salutes Sister Shirley.