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.
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.
Inequality has been around since biblical times – based on economic position, gender, race, and other factors. Our Abrahamic religions have approaches to inequality that have many similarities but significant and interesting differences. Come to this public seminar, and learn more about how religions can contribute to the public discourse about inequality.
Come to our first Wellington Abrahamic Council event of 2016!
What: Challenges and opportunities facing the Abrahamic faiths worldwide Speaker: Bishop David Gillett Where: All Saints Church Centre, 90 Hamilton Road, Hataitai When: Thursday 28 January 2016, 5:30pm
The evening will conclude with a light vegetarian meal.
Bishop David Gillett was the Bishop of Bolton (Diocese of Manchester) between 1999 and 2008. He is currently Assistant Bishop and Inter-Faith Adviser in the Anglican Diocese of Norwich, England, Honorary Vice President of UK Christian Muslim Forum, Trustee and Advisory Board Member of the UK Council of Christians and Jews, and chair of Norwich Interfaith Link.
And while we have your attention, we have the following planned events coming up early this year:
Our friends at The Wellington Interfaith Council are having their AGM later this month.
When: 23 August 2015, 2pm Where:SOGINZ Wellington Centre, Ground Floor, HP House, 8 Gilmer Tce
There will be two speakers, Nadia McDonald, winner of the Bahai leadership competition. Nadia will speak on “Big change starts small” for 4 minutes. The second speaker is Robert McKay who will speak on the Parliament of World Religions using a video and presentation. He will speak for 20 minutes.
The AGM will commence thereafter, and will be followed by a cup of tea and shared food.
Free parking is available for the meeting: Park in the James Cook Hotel Carpark – entrance off the Terrace. Take the right hand lane and take a ticket at the barrier. The right hand lane leads you to the lower parking levels – you can park anywhere but I suggest you park on level B or C. Bring your parking ticket with you, and walk out to Gilmer Terrace via the vehicle exit on Level B. The venue is in the hexagonal building in front of you – the entrance is about 40 metres along to the right.
Prof Paul Morris at Victoria University’s Religious Studies Department and the Robert Mackay from the World Parliament of Religions have organised the following seminar…
What: Should there be religious limits to absolute media freedom of expression? When: Monday, 10 August 2015 6.15-8.15pm Where: Victoria University Council Chambers, Level 2, Hunter Building, Kelburn campus
Paul Morris will provide a plenary, with a panel afterwards comprising Dave Moskovitz, Tayyaba Khan, Jenny Chalmers, Joris de Bres, Tom Scott, Selva Ramasami, and John Shaver, moderated by Ced Simpson. David Zwartz will sum up.
Note that this is not an official function of the Wellington Abrahamic Council, but the topic will be of interest to our community.
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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 
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.
Public Meeting Announcement
Come to our first Wellington Abrahamic Council event of 2016!