Faith Communities Council of Victoria - FCCV - September 2018 Newsletter

FCCV SEPTEMBER 2018 NEWSLETTER
	NEWS | EVENTS | HOLY DAYS
2018 VICTORIAN INTERFAITH NETWORKS CONFERENCE: REGISTRATION NOW OPEN Registration is now open for the 2018 Victorian Interfaith Networks Conference to be held Sunday, November 18th 2018 @ St. Albans Community Centre.
MEHREEN FARUQI TO BECOME FIRST FEMALE MUSLIM SENATOR AMID FRASER ANNING OUTRAGE Mehreen Faruqi, who will on Wednesday become Australia’s first female Muslim senator, has slammed Fraser Anning as a “merchant of hate” who has “spat in the face of our successful multicultural society”.
A FAITH COMMUNITIES PERSPECTIVE ON THE ISSUE OF REFUGEES IN MANUS AND NAURU There are around 1,650 asylum seekers and refugees, adults and children, currently in Manus and Nauru. These are people who arrived by boat after 19th July 2013 and are still awaiting resettlement.
AUSTRALIA'S DROUGHT CRISIS: SIKH FARMERS FIGHT TO SAVE THEIR CROPS On the New South Wales mid north coast, time is running out for a group of farmers from the Sikh community to save their crops.
NEW JEWISH WAR MEMORIAL UNVEILED IN CANBERRA A new national war memorial has been unveiled to remember the 341 Jewish servicemen who laid down their lives fighting for Australia, 100 years to the day since Monash was knighted on the battlefield.
LIVING THE CHANGE: FAITHFUL CHOICES FOR A FLOURISHING WORLD For those who have not heard, a diverse range of faith communities around the world are awakening to a fresh opportunity to help create a safer climate future.
UNIONS SEEK TO END RELIGIOUS BODIES' RIGHT TO DISCRIMINATE IN HIRING Australia’s union movement will lobby for churches and other religious organisations to lose the legal right to fire some workers on the basis of their sexuality or gender identity.
SCOTT MORRISON - AUSTRALIA'S FIRST PENTECOSTAL PRIME MINISTER Australia has its first Pentecostal Prime Minister with Scott Morrison elected Liberal Party leader and Prime Minister of Australia.
LORD IT'S COLD OUTSIDE: THE HOMELESS PEOPLE SLEEPING IN CHURCHES It's 7pm on a Wednesday and, good Lord, it's cold in the Melbourne suburb of Heathmont. If Glenn wasn’t sleeping inside (the heated) Heathmont Baptist Church tonight, he would be shivering in a pitch-black Vermont water tunnel.
THE KORAN VERSE SPLITTING IMAMS ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE Some imams in Australia still teach that the Koran permits husbands to beat their wives, with police reporting Muslim men are citing scripture to justify abuse. Now a new generation of faith leaders is working to undo the damage.
2018 NATIONAL RELIGIOUS SHORT FILM PRIZE WINNER ANNOUNCED Charles Sturt University (Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture) announced the winners of the 2018 Religious Short Film Prize at a special ceremony in Canberra on Wednesday 8 August.
BENEDICTINE ORDER TO JOIN BUDDHISTS AS SOUTHERN TASMANIA TO BECOME HUB OF MONK BUSINESS An order of Catholic monks famous for their six-day silent retreats and chanting have bought a property in southern Tasmania that they hope will become their new Australian base.
SWEDEN MUSLIM WOMAN WHO REFUSED HANDSHAKE AT JOB INTERVIEW WINS CASE A Swedish Muslim woman has won compensation after her job interview was ended when she refused a handshake.
POPE FRANCIS CONDEMNS CHURCH SEX ABUSE IN RESPONSE TO NEW REVELATIONS IN US Pope Francis has issued a letter to Catholics around the world condemning the "crime" of sexual abuse committed by priests and demanding accountability.
THAI CAVE RESCUE: RESCUED BOYS COMPLETE TIME AS NOVICE BUDDHIST MONKS With their heads bowed and wearing orange robes, the members of the boys' soccer team rescued from almost three weeks trapped in a cave in northern Thailand have completed their time as novice Buddhist monks.
HOW ONE MOVIE IS SPARKING A CONVERSATION ON BEING BAHA'I: AN INTERVIEW WITH ‘THE GATE’ DOCUMENTARY CREATORS Ask most people what the Bahá’í faith is, and you will get puzzled looks. It is one of the relatively newer religions and has around five million members around the world. The documentary 'The Gate' is trying to change that.

Notes from a Crisis : a postscript to a forum held in #Ballarat on Homelessness

The above PowerPoint presentation

has been gathered and edited  from 

the feedback of participants at the Forum.

Not only can it be viewd on line -

it can be downloaded and screened.

Please give it wide coverage in your groups and associations/

Please encourage people to attend the next Forum on 9 October.

Details to be announced

On 21 August 2015, approximately 80 people gathered at the Eastwood Leisure Centre in Ballarat for a Forum on Homelessness. The place was packed. The place was lively. 

People working in organisations related to Homelessness were present. Some of these gave presentations of their work. Most of these were in government funded organisations but there were some present who received no government funding whatsoever and relied wholly on community support to fund their activities.  Prominent among the latter was The Soup Bus - a well known #Ballarat institution.  

A favourite of many people was Josh Wilkins, the founder of One Voice.  One Voice operates without government funding and provides free, clean shower facilities for homeless people.  Keep watch because there may be a #Ballarat version pop up thanks to the energies of local people.  A bus has already been given for the purpose but there is much more to be done before bus and showers can hit the road. Josh said that his ambition is to become like the community of Sant'Egidio in Italy who started small but now have moved on to providing health care and facilities.  

There were people from the general community who were concerned about Homelessness and who were seeking solutions to this grave problem. The forum was co-sponsored by Ballarat Regional Multicultural Council and Ballarat Interfaith Network. Many thanks to Father Constantine Osuchukwu (Treasurer, B.I.N. and Interfaith Officer, BRMC) and Margaret Lenan Ellis (Public Relations Officer, B.I.N.) who were at the forefront of organising the Forum and a special thanks for the great job that Father Constantine did in chairing proceedings.

If you attended, the Homelessness Forum or if you were prevented from attending, another gathering will be held on 9 October. Stay tuned for further details.

The growing number of homeless men, women and children in Australia ... together with faith principles on homelessness

Judaism and the homeless

Beyond homelessness: Christian faith in a culture of displacement

Man gives homeless a voice for Ramadan

The importance of seva and social justice for inner transformation

Buddhism and social action: how would Sid treat the homeless

Bahai teaching and homelessness

Isaiah 58:7New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)