Recent BCV Events
BSRI Teacher Training August 2015
The BCV hosted a BSRI Teacher Training on the 3rd and 4th of August, (the second one for the year) at the Melbourne Thai Buddhist Temple in Box Hill. 6 trainees successfully completed their BSRI training in this session.
Spiritual Health Victoria (SHV) and University of Divinity Interfaith (Buddhist) Immersion Day 7th October 2015
BCV organised the event for SHV and the University of Divinity with monastics from the 3 lineages talking to the participants about their faith and health. A Chinese herbalist doctor spoke about the care of health from a lay person’s point of view. Speakers on the day were Peggy Page with an overview of Buddhism, Mr. Alan Wong from FGS Yarraville on Mahayana (Chinese) Buddhism, Dr. Huijing Geng on Chinese cultural healthcare principles, Ajahn Boomson on Theravada (Thai) Buddhism, and Hojun Futen on Vajrayana Buddhism and general Buddhist healthcare principles.
Emails of congratulations on the success of the day were received from Shinen Wong – Education Officer at SHV and Dr. Alan Niven – University of Divinity, Stirling College. There were 16 participants for the event.
The Buddhist Council of Victoria would like to thank Yun Yang Temple for allowing us to host the Immersion Day at their temple.
BCV Bus Tours October 2015
The BCV hosted two interfaith bus tours in November. The first was held on the 12th October (the Western Suburbs Tour) and visited the Daham Niketanaya Centre and The Tibetan Buddhist Society both in Yuroke, and Quang Minh Temple in Braybrook.
Attendees on the day were of the Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Scientology and Buddhist faiths. Feedback from the event showed that the highlights included learning about Buddhism, visiting temples and seeing the interesting architecture of buildings.
The second interfaith bus tour was held on the 26th October (South Eastern Suburbs Tour) and visited Tara Institute in Brighton East, Hoa Nghiem Temple in Springvale South and Khmer Buddhist Temple also in Springvale South. Attendees to this tour spoke of the highlights being seeing and meeting the monks, learning about Buddhism and visiting the temples.
Many thanks go to Myly Nguyen for organising and hosting the bus tours. Myly's wealth of knowledge across all Buddhist lineages was a great asset and was much appreciated by all that attended.
The Buddhist Council of Victoria would also like to thank all of the organisations mentioned above for hosting our guests. The tour attendees were very appreciative of the lunches offered by members from Quang Minh Temple and Hoa Nghiem Temple.
Overall the tours were a great success with more planned for 2016!
Catholic and Buddhist Luncheon November 2015
The BCV together with the Ecumenical and Interfaith Commission of the Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne hosted the Catholic and Buddhist Luncheon at Dhamma Sarana Temple in Keysborough. The morning commenced with blessings from both Rev. Dr. John Dupuche and Venerable Nuotunne Vijitha Thero. This was followed by the Dana Ceremony with the Dhamma Sarana Temple community, and then lunch.
The Theme for the day was "Slavery and Freedom - Interior and Outer". After lunch Christine Carolane from the Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans spoke about the different forms of human trafficking and the work that ACRATH does around this issue. Rev. Dr. John Dupuche and Venerable Nuotunne Vijitha Thero then presented religious aspects of the theme, followed by a Q & A session.
The BCV would like to thank the Dhamma Sarana Temple for hosting the event.
BSRI Professional Development Day November 2015
The Buddhist Special Religious Instruction program held its annual professional development session on November 21, 2015. Almost half of the current voluntary instructors took part in it.
Class experiences, problems and insights were shared among the instructors. Some new program materials that could be considered for future use were put on display.
The occasion was also used to thank all the instructors for their hard work and valuable contribution, without which the program could not have been continued in the year.
The implications of the new government policy changes announced in August on the program were expounded. Voluntary instructors were told of the decision by the Buddhist Council of Victoria to put the program on hold for the first six months of 2016.
BCV Key Programs Update
Healthcare and Prison Chaplaincy
Venerable Hojun Futen has been convening both the Prison Chaplaincy and Healthcare Chaplaincy roles since Christine Thompson left earlier this year.
Hojun will remain in the Prison Chaplaincy role for 2016. He will vacate the Healthcare Convener position resulting in the need to look for a new convener.
Do you have a background in spiritual care/chaplaincy/counselling? Please look out for the advertisement for this position in the coming weeks.
If you would like more information please contact Hojun Futen via his BCV email:hojun.futen@bcv.org.au.
Buddhist Special Religious Instruction
As some of you may know, on the 21st August 2015 major changes were made to the SRI program. The changes meant that SRI will no longer take part during school teaching hours.
This forces the SRI programs to be organised for before school, at lunch times or after school. A teacher from the school would still be required to supervise the classes. The BCV and BSRI committees are currently working together to determine the future of the BSRI program. If it is to continue in some other form, there is a need for new BSRI committee members. If you are interested in assisting, please contactadministration@bcv.org.au.
Interfaith Events
Carey Rohlach a very long and committed volunteer and supporter of BCV had attended many events on behalf of BCV. With the starting of recording and provision of feedback of attendances it is seen that Carey attends on average two events a week. Well done Carey.
There are many new interfaith organisations/networks being established at various municipalities and are looking for Buddhist representatives. Please consider being a member of such newly established organisations to assist them in having a better understanding of the teachings of the Buddha. If you have further queries, please email us at administrator@bcv.org.au.
Volunteering
BCV has a workplan of 12 activities that it is required to implement in 2015 – 2017. Skills and experience needed include managing of projects, organising events, work processing and creative thinking. If you are looking for an exciting project to be involved in please send an email to chair@bcv,org.au.
BCV also needs volunteers for each of its four programs (Interfaith, Spiritual Care Prison, Spiritual Care Health, Religious Instructions in Schools) and also for general administration duties. Please access our website for more information and fill in our volunteer expression of interest form.
For further information please contact administrator@bcv.org.au .
Enquiries can also be made at 03 8822 2013 (Monday & Thursday 11:00 – 3:00pm).
Bi-Lingual Vietnamese Spiritual Carers Needed.
The Vietnamese community is one of the largest Buddhist communities in Victoria and it is an ageing one. In order to best assist our older Vietnamese brothers and sisters in difficult times, the BCV is calling for bi-lingual Vietnamese ordained Sangha and lay people to become on-call volunteer Buddhist Spiritual Carers.
Training will be provided and carers will be added to a pool of volunteers to be called when non-English speaking patients and/or their families require spiritual care in hospitals.
Bi-lingual monks and nuns are also required to assist Vietnamese men in Victorian prisons.
Please contact administrator@bcv.org.au for further details.
Be Social!
The BCV would love for you to follow us on facebook www.facebook.com/BuddhistCouncilofVictoria to keep up to date with BCV and it's member temple's activities and events.
If you are reading this, you have probably signed up to receive our newsletters and updates via email. If you know anyone else who might be interested, please send them to our website and request that they join our mailing list (supplying their email address at the bottom of the page).
The Buddhist Council of Victoria wishes our members and friends a very happy festive season and a joyful and peaceful new year.
We value your support over the year and look forward to your continued support in 2016. We have a very big year planned with the 20th anniversary celebrations, as well as many other Buddhist activities.
Please note that the Buddhist Council of Victoria office will be closed from Tuesday 22nd Dec until Wednesday 6th January 2016.
The administrator@bcv.org.au email address will be checked intermittently over the holiday period.
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