The United Nations International Day of Peace was celebrated at an interfaith event on Sunday 22 September 2024 with people from diverse background attending in person in Newtown and many more participating online.
The event was organised with the collaboration between the Institute for Economics and Peace, the Raising Peace Festival and Rigpa Australia with speakers representing four major religions namely Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism.
Watch at the video of the event on ZOOM at this the link here.
The theme at the event was ‘Faith, Religion and Peace’ where the various speakers addressed the question, “Faith and Religion bring inner peace to many people, but do we really understand the relationship of faith and religion with conflict and war? How can faith help bring peace to the world?”
The formal program was started by MC Jessica Taylor from Rigpa welcoming the guests followed by an introduction by Wies Shuiringa from Raising Peace.
Patricia Garcia AO, Partnership Development Manager from Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) gave a short presentation on the Institute’s research findings on ‘Religion and Peace’ concluding that religion can be a catalyst for bringing about peace through ending conflicts as well as helping to build strong social cohesion.
Rabbi Jeffrey B Kamins OAM from the Emanuel Synagogue said that we have the challenge of knowing the difference between good and bad, and peaceful coexistence and violent destruction.
“We are each other’s keeper and the invitation of faith is to live as if all life is one and sacred and thereby make that evident in a world of peace,” he concluded.
Joyce Siosiana Tangi, a Pastor in placement within the NSW/ACT Synod of the Uniting Church said, “Christian belief is to inherit worth of every human being created in the image of God. It supports justice and compassion for all this is the basis for all advocacy for peace and justice, especially when fighting the war for the marginalised and oppressed.”
Zia Ahmad, Editor-in-Chief of Australasian Muslim Times AMUST after greeting the audience with the Islamic greeting of peace recited the Islamic prayer of peace and while quoting on concepts of faith (Iman) and religion (Deen) from Quran, gave examples of periods of war and peace from Prophet Mohammad’s (s) life and human history in general and Islamic history in particular.
He pointed out that in at times religion has been used as a battle cry to serve the interests of the powerful while at the same time religion has also been used to resist oppression and achieve freedom in modern times.
“As people of faith and practitioners of religion, it is important for us to appeal to the positive spirit of religions to avoid conflicts and build a peaceful world,” he concluded.
Marianne Gizycki, an instructor at Rigpa Sydney said, “we think of the great peacemakers of the past, the Jewish prophets, Jesus Christ, Mohammed, the Buddha all the saints, scholars, and practitioners who have lived lives of peace and we think that we are following in their footsteps, and we take that inspiration and we wish that there may be peace in the world, so that everyone may be entirely free of want and illness and that they may experience deep, long-lasting, well-being, and happiness.
Towards the end of the program, a panel discussion facilitated by Elizabeth Weiss was held to address questions posed by those present as well as from online.
The event ended with refreshments provided by the hosts and networking amongst the participants.
“A person is either your brother in faith, or your equal in Humanity” – Hazrat Ali (AS)