Serbian Orthodox Church

In May 2015 the Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church, meeting at the Patriarchate Palace in Belgrade elected Archimandrite Siluan (Mrakić) as Bishop of the Metropolitanate of Australia and New Zealand.

On 7 August he will be consecrated bishop at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Holy Archangel Michael in Belgrade. On 22 October he will be enthroned in St George Historic Cathedral in Cabramatta by His Grace Bishop Longin of New Gracanica—Midwestern America.

Holly has worked as the Supporter Care Officer for Act for Peace since May 2015. She was attracted to this role as an opportunity to combine her customer service experience and Development Studies degree to inspire our valued supporters to give more, do more and stay longer in the fight against injustice.

This year Holly participated in the Ration Challenge, eating the same rations as a Syrian refugee for a week and raising money to support Act for Peace’s refugee programs. She values the opportunity to stand with refugees and join our supporters in this shared experience.

An invitation from the Royal Commission into institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse

MULTICULTURAL FORUMS - Sydney

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has recently held multicultural forums in Perth and Hobart in July and will host another for people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in:

Ration Challenge

Bringing hope and comfort to refugees in Jordan with over $2.3 million raised

Last November, I travelled to Jordan to see Act for Peace’s work with Syrian families living in urban refugee camps. These were mothers, fathers and small children who’d been living normal lives and then suddenly lost everything – their homes, belongings, people they love – and found themselves strangers in a foreign country, cold, hungry and alone.

Bible and Ecology: Reading scripture through ecological eyes

Join this national webinar to engage ecology and biblical theology with scholars from around Australia and the world

Monday 19th September 10:30am to 5:30pm (Australian Eastern Time) 

In recent years, in the context of growing ecological awareness, biblical scholars have been working to move beyond human-focused perspectives and read the Bible with a deliberate sympathy for the wider Earth community. In this full-day webinar, we will hear from scholars around the country about reading the Bible through “ecological eyes”, and will practise applying such lenses to scripture.

On 1 September 1989, Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios invited the whole Christian world ‘to offer together with the Great Mother Church of Christ (the Ecumenical Patriarchate) every year on this day prayers and supplication to the Maker of all, both as thanksgiving for the great gift of Creation and as petitions for its protection and salvation.’

If you would like to read this message visit goarch.org/ourfaith/ourfaith8052

Call to a Year of Prayer

The first meeting of the new board of National Council of Churches in Australia met on last Friday, 22 July 2016.

Following a request from the NCCA Forum the Board of Directors have released a statement calling all to a Year of Prayer.

2 July Federal election

3-10 July NAIDOC week

3 July National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday

1-7 August National Homeless Persons week

The holy season of Ramadan is drawing to a close. The Parliament of the World Religions issues a Ramadan Challenge, inviting people to honour the tradition of Islam in a number of ways:

• Participate in fast
• Pray or meditate (in my own tradition) five times per day
• Break the fast with my Muslim neighbours and attend an Interfaith IFTAR
• Share my experience of Embodied Solidarity at Ramadan on Social Media and elsewhere with my family, friends, and networks.

Corinne is employed as the Safe Church Program Office, a part-time role which is 2 days per week. Her responsibilities are to provide and develop resources to support churches with safeguarding children, develop and review training for those within the Safe Church Training Agreement (SCTA), update the national Safe Church workshop calendar and network and support those in professional standards roles within their denomination.