WELLINGTON ABRAHAMIC COUNCIL OF JEWS, CHRISTIANS, AND MUSLIMS
15 March 2019 5pm
The Wellington Abrahamic Council of Jews, Christians, and Muslims condemns the violence against the Muslim Community in Christchurch today. While the situation is still unfolding, it is clear that many innocent people have been killed – may they rest in peace.
The Jewish and Christian communities send love and support to our Muslim brothers and sisters.
Such deadly violence aimed at religious people has been unknown in New Zealand – until now, and has no place in our normally peaceful country. Now is the time to stand together, support our Muslim friends, and most importantly, keep talking and keep working to better understand each other.
ENDS For more information, contact: Dave Moskovitz 027 220 2202
THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED in the aftermath of the Christchurch terrorist attacks on 15 March. Please stay tuned for updates.
Come and join us for a time of silent prayer together, sharing the
practice and insights into this form of spirituality from our three traditions within
the Abrahamic religious family.
During our time together there will be three periods of silent prayer.
Each of these will be introduced by a talk about the contribution of meditative
prayer within their tradition. Following each time of silent prayer there will
be the opportunity for questions and sharing about the significance of
meditative practice within our communities.
Rabbi JoEllen Duckor from Temple Sinai, Rehanna Ali from the Islamic community and Nick Polaschek from the Catholic Christian tradition will lead the three sessions.
Please bring a vegetarian plate for a shared lunch. Free
tea/coffee available.
A koha of $5-10 to help
cover costs would be appreciated.
Pā Maria is on a back section, drive to door for drop-off, but parking only in nearby streets, easy access within the building.
Chairs provided, if you meditate sitting on a cushion please bring your own.
The Abrahamic traditions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – have insights about homelessness and of ways of mobilising support and energies to address this growing concern.
The aim of this forum is twofold. First, to explore the insights and understandings of the significance of a having and not having a home in our religious traditions, focussing on our responsibilities for the homeless in our community. Secondly, to raise awareness about homelessness – why? who? and what can we do together to alleviate the plight of the homeless in our community?
You can help us publicise this event by sharing with your friends, or downloading, printing out, and putting up our attractive poster.
Our holy day of the week in the three Abrahamic traditions
Temple Sinai 147 Ghuznee St Wednesday 24 October 2018, 7pm
All Welcome.
Speakers:
Jewish
Tadhg Cleary
Christian
Rev Jenny Dawson
Muslim
Tahir Nawaz
Audio from the event –
Tadhg Cleary (Jewish):
Rev Jenny Dawson (Christian):
Tahir Nawaz (Muslim):
Where does our holy day of the week come from? What do we do that is different from other days of the week on our holy day? What happens in the ritual on our Holy day of the week? What is the meaning of the ritual we participate in on our holy day? Is our holy Day celebrated differently in different communities and places Has the celebration of our holy day changed over time?
Our three speakers will each talk about the Holy day of the week in their own Abrahamic tradition, then answer questions in a group discussion.
Light refreshments will be served.
Come to the event, learn and contribute to the conversation.
You can help us publicise this event by downloading, printing, and distributing our poster.
Sharing our scriptures: an Abrahamic interfaith dialogue
When:
7.30PM Tuesday 27 February and monthly thereafter
Where:
Nick Polaschek’s home at 12 Everest Street Khandallah
You are invited to an ongoing informal discussion sharing our perspectives of the Torah, New Testament, and Koran.
The Wellington Abrahamic Council is again sponsoring a series of evening meetings to help foster understanding and friendship between people from the three Abrahamic faith traditions in Wellington.
Last year a group met monthly to reflect together on a theme expressed in a selected passage from the sacred scriptures of each of the three Abrahamic faith traditions. During the meetings each of us listens to the other participants sharing their understanding of the selected scripture from their faith traditions, in turn sharing our understanding of the scriptures from our own tradition.
Participants last year found the experience enriching and were keen to continue in 2018.
Our shared aim is to understand more deeply the perspectives of the other Abrahamic faith traditions and, in this light, to understand more deeply our own faith tradition. From this we hope to better recognize our shared understandings and values and appreciate positively our differences as faith traditions that come from Abraham, our father in faith.
The evenings will once again use Scriptural Reasoning, a tool for interfaith dialogue developed by the Cambridge University Interfaith Programme and now used in a number of countries. We will use the guidelines and text packs, available at their website.
The theme for our first meeting of 2017 is Encountering God, which can be found in the Resources section of the Scriptural Reasoning website.
Our shared aim is to understand more deeply the perspectives of the other Abrahamic faith traditions and, in this light, to understand more deeply our own faith traditions. From this we hope to better recognize our shared understandings and values and appreciate positively our differences as faith traditions that come from Abraham, our father in faith.
Elastic Man: What do our religions (continue to) make of men, as they (continue to) re-define women?
Wednesday 15 November, 7:00pm Salvation Army Citadel, 92 Vivian Street Entry by Koha
In this ever-changing world, as Women’s role(s) have been and are constantly re-defined, they impact and revise the role of Men. This evening will consider our endlessly malleable religious roles, as they are experienced in our places of worship, and in our homes. Change can be as challenging – and acceptance as elusive – within the schools of a single religion as it can be in the streets we share.
What do our religions (continue to) make of gender?
Speakers:
Sue Esterman – Jewish
Sue has helped to shape gender roles in Wellington’s Progressive Jewish Congregation for 40 years. With a committed peer group, she studied, made herself competent, and acted: reading from the Torah, leading services and music, becoming the Temple’s first female marriage celebrant and its second funeral celebrant. She taught Hebrew school for 25 years, chaired the Board of Management (twice) and the Ritual Committee. Progressive Judaism has always professed equality, but it has taken real effort to, progressively, bring it to life.
Rehanna Ali – Muslim
Rehanna calls Wellington home and is an active member of the vibrant and diverse local Muslim community based at the Kilbirnie Mosque. A founding member of the Islamic Women’s Council of NZ and a long-term participant and supporter of NZ interfaith initiatives, she is currently a member of the Wellington Interfaith Council. With a background in Law, including Islamic Shariah, Rehanna has spent the last two decades working in the field of international development. She has a particular interest in issues related to gender equity, community development and diversity and is kept optimistic by an ongoing study of Islamic spirituality.
Diane Gilliam-Weeks – Christian
Diane has been working for gender and ethnic equity for 45 years first in television in the 70’s and 80’s in Media Women and later in her role as Director of Communications for the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand. She was required to gain a degree in Theology before being ordained to ministry in 2002. Diane’s home church is in Eastbourne and she is active at regional and national levels. With a Muslim friend, Diane initiated an interfaith lunch some years ago where food, faith and friendship were shared. She identifies with the contemplative tradition in Christianity.
You can help us publicise this event by sharing with your friends, or downloading, printing out, and putting up our attractive poster.
For more information, email Marilyn Garson, margarson@gmail.com, or ring Dave Moskovitz on 027 220 2202
Workshop and Public Meeting
on Tuesday 5 September 2017
Update: Listen to (or download) the audio from Sami Awad’s public lecture here.
The Wellington Abrahamic Council of Jews, Christians, and Muslims is pleased to present two opportunities to hear and interact with Sami Awad, the Director of the Holy Land Trust, an organisation based in Bethlehem focusing on nonviolence as the catalyst to end all forms of conflict and establish an enduring and comprehensive peace in the Holy Land.
As part of Sami’s visit we have planned two events.
Workshop:
Non Linear Thinking as a tool for peace making
When:
1.30-5.00 PM, Tuesday 5 September 2017
Where:
Temple Sinai, 147 Ghuznee Street, Wellington
Cost:
Koha: we suggest $40+ waged, $5 unwaged. Tickets essential, available at: http://bit.ly/sami-tix
Leadership has many dimensions. Through vision, inspiration, strategy and determination, leaders move others toward outcomes. Too often, however, we envision leadership too narrowly; a leader takes us from Point A to Point B. We are usually constrained by past experience in envisioning future possibilities. Our solutions are usually new iterations of what hasn’t worked in the past.
Holy Land Trust moves beyond these failures and frustrations through a practice called nonlinear leadership. Nonlinear leadership is a personal transformation process that enables leaders to engage in making the impossible possible. It addresses the question of what makes us see something as impossible. Leaders come to understand how powerfully the past influences our decisions in the present, for the future. With this awareness, individually and collectively, leaders become able to facilitate a process in which they build a vision of the future that honors, respects and learns from the past, while, at the same time, remaining free from its limitations.
Tickets for this event are expected to sell out quickly. If you miss out on the workshop, you can still attend Sami’s public lecture below.
If you are unable to purchase tickets through the Eventbrite link above, contact Dave Moskovitz on 027 220 2202 for other options.
Public Lecture:
Healing, Transformation and nonviolence: Peacemaking in the Holy Land
When:
7.00 PM, Tuesday 5 September 2017
Where:
Salvation Army Citadel, 92 Vivian Street, Wellington
Cost:
Koha (no ticket required)
Sami Awad brings an important voice to the table in the discussion about peace in the middle east – the voice of nonviolence.
“My enemy was a group of people that had experienced continued threat, violence, discrimination and racism,” Sami said. “There was never a healing for the Jews. Both groups, the Jews and the Palestinians have a similar type of trauma – an existential threat to their existence – so they can never let their guards down.”
“For the first time I began to see that peacemaking is not about making a political commitment, it’s a commitment to a deep healing of deep traumas. Until we do that we can never do peacemaking.”
Calling for a paradigm shift in peace and justice Sami, who established Holy Land Trust with Palestinian and Israeli peace activists, explained how his organisation tries to help people to look into the past with a different lens.
He said: “We negotiate peace out of fear, we resist out of fear. Fear is what motivates and if we are not able to bring about healing there can never be any peace for the future.”
Come learn about Sami’s approach to overcoming fear and violence to achieve lasting healing and peace in the middle east.
The Wellington Abrahamic Council is sponsoring a series of evening meetings to help foster understanding and friendship between people from the three Abrahamic faith traditions in Wellington.
We will meet in each others’ homes to reflect together on a theme expressed in a selected passage from the sacred scriptures of each of the three Abrahamic faith traditions.
Each of us will listen to the other participants sharing their understanding of the selected scripture from their faith traditions, in turn sharing our understanding of the scriptures from our own tradition.
The evenings will use Scriptural Reasoning, a tool for interfaith dialogue developed by the Cambridge University Interfaith Programme and now used in a number of countries. We will use the guidelines and text packs, available at their website.
For the first meeting we will use the first text pack, Abraham’s hospitality, which can be found in the Resources section of the Scriptural Reasoning website.
Our shared aim is to understand more deeply the perspectives of the other Abrahamic faith traditions and, in this light, to understand more deeply our own faith traditions. From this we hope to better recognize our shared understandings and values and appreciate positively our differences as faith traditions that come from Abraham, our father in faith.
Do consider coming along on Wednesday 29 March 2017 at 7:30pm, and don’t forget to RSVP.
As the secular year draws to a close, we’ve had a few personnel changes at the Abrahamic Council. Jenny Chalmers has stepped down as Christian Co-chair, as she has taken up a position as the Vicar at St Andrew’s Anglican Church in Taupo. Jenny will stay on as a member of the Council, although she will participate remotely most of the time. Taking up the position of Christian Co-chair is Ron Bennett, a Catholic Priest who has been on the Council for the last several years.
Sister Catherine Jones (Catholic) leaves us to take up a posting in London. We will miss her, as she has contributed so much to the Council over the years, and wish her well in her new position.
We also farewelled Father Aprem Pithyou from the Ancient Church of the East (Assyrian Orthodox) earlier in the year, who is retiring from the Council after many years of service. We will miss his gentle smile and keen perspective of someone who comes from a region where our religions meet in complex ways.
Nick Polaschek, a Catholic layperson who has published numerous articles in refereed journals on topics related to the delivery of health services, joins us as our newest Christian member.
We also welcome Marilyn Garson, our newest Jewish member. Marilyn has returned to Aotearoa recently from Gaza, where she worked most recently on a UN programme for creating jobs through business outsourcing. Prior to that, she established social enterprises and worked in economic development in Afghanistan, Cambodia, and American e-commerce.
So we have a number of new faces and new perspectives in the Council.
At this time, we’d like to wish all of our Christian friends a Merry Christmas, our Jewish friends a happy Chanukah, and to everyone a restful break to enjoy the summer in good spirits.
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Public Meeting Announcement
The Wellington Abrahamic Council of Jews, Christians, and Muslims is pleased to present two opportunities to hear and interact with 
Public Meeting Announcement