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.

Safe Church Update

As part of a Safe church, we also want to ensure that those who may be vulnerable in our communities are also safe.  One particular group of people who would be considered vulnerable would be the elderly.  And recently Australia acknowledged this with “Elder Abuse awareness day” (15th June 2016).

Their website www.elderabuseawarenessday.org.au provides information and resources to help understand elder abuse.

Ration Challenge

Ration Challenge raises over $1.9 million to support refugees 

Last week, more than 8,000 passionate people took the Act for Peace Ration Challenge and showed refugees we’re with them, not against them.During Refugee Week, 19-25 June, participants ate the same rations that a Syrian refugee living in a refugee camp in Jordan receives - just a small amount of rice, beans, lentils, fish, oil and flour. It’s a tough but eye-opening experience. 

Installation of NCCA President

New President of NCCA

Our new President installed as the 8^th President of National Council of Churches in Australia on the Sunday 26 June 2016.

Bishop Philip Huggins was ordained in the Anglican Communion in 1977, and has served the people of God in a range of appointments, as industrial chaplain and university chaplain, and in parish ministry in Bendigo and Melbourne. He has served as assistant Bishop in Perth (1995-1998), and Diocesan Bishop of Grafton (1998-2003).

Remember, renew, rejoice…

During the past several days people from our member churches gathered at Mary MacKillop Place in North Sydney for the 9th Triennial Forum. These were special days. Written evaluations from participants included such words as ‘engaging’, ‘inspiring’, relaxed, ‘efficient’, ‘educational’, ‘providing opportunities for networking’, ‘enthusiasm’, ‘blessings of diverse gifts and energies’, ‘active involvement’, ‘rich experience’ ‘new time’.

6 June 2016 - World Environment Day

At the international level, this year's World Environment Day celebration are hosted by Angola, a country seeking to restore its elephant herds, conserve Africa's biodiversity-rich wildlife, and safeguard the environment as it continues to rebuild after more than a quarter century of civil war.

Pre-Forum Event, Friday 24 June

The Faith & Unity Commission presents an opportunity to engage with The Church, Towards a Common Vision WCC Faith & Order Paper 214 . Click here to see details.

7 June 2016 – Ramadan

The Islamic holy month of Ramadan commences in 2016 on 7 June. The word “Ramadan” is derived from an Arabic word for intense heat, scorched ground and shortness of food and drink. Fighting is not permitted during this period.

Fasting during Ramadan is one of the Five Pillars (fundamental religious duties) of Islam. It is traditional that Muslims fast during the daylight hours in the month of Ramadan. It is a period of increased religious devotion, in particular self-examination. During Ramadan the common practice is to have a pre-fast meal (suhoor) before sunrise and an evening meal (iftar) after sunset. 

Geoff is the Disaster Risk Resilience Manager for Act for Peace (AfP), based in Melbourne. In this role he has responsibility for supporting AfP’s partners to develop and implement disaster risk management programs that increase community resilience to disasters. Geoff explains “Partners are the local organisations that we support in country to implement programs; usually they faith-based organisations such as the Tonga National council of Churches (TNCC) or the Vanuatu Christian Council (VCC)”. His work includes programming activities that empower communities to take action be better prepared for disasters and the uncertainty caused by climate change as well as working with partners in times of emergencies in their efforts to provide immediate life-saving assistance and support early recovery of livelihoods and well of people affected by disasters.

The Safe Church Program continues to develop tools and resources for the Australian Church to assist local churches in providing a safe environment for all people, in particular children, young people and vulnerable adults.

We have recently uploaded a variety of tools, sample documents and guides to our website to assist churches in the development of policies and procedures. Some of these resources include an Electronic Communications Guide that provides information on areas that need to be considered when using Email, mobile phones and social media, including looking at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Kik.