At 7.00pm on Thursday 15 October, Youth PoWR (Parliament of the World’s Religions), an initiative of the Columban Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations at Blacktown in the Diocese of Parramatta, will launch its interfaith charter, The Sydney Statement, live on Facebook.
At the launch, members of the Youth PoWR network, young adults aged 18-35 from different faiths, will authorise The Sydney Statement by casting a vote for its publication.
In 2019, Youth PoWR hosted four facilitated workshops for young adults from different faiths in the north, south, east and west of Sydney to contribute ideas about how best to break down religious divides and promote interfaith dialogue and action in our multicultural and multi-religious city.
Together, they shared their hopes for a harmonious society.
Together, they generated a list of ideas and suggestions for building bridges between believers from different religions.
To assist them, researchers from Western Sydney University shared their analysis of interreligious statements from other cities around the world, including Vienna 2014, Athens 2015 and Washington 2018.
In 2020, the raw data generated by the Youth PoWR consultations was put through a rigorous process of drafting, refining, making concise and precise. There were extensive consultations with the Youth PoWR Coordinating Committee and the Steering Committee, both comprising representatives from different religions, including peak state and national bodies. As the process neared completion, the consultations were extended online to the wider Youth PoWR network and also to selected religious leaders and leading theologians.
On 15 October, Youth PoWR will present the final approved text of The Sydney Statement to the public for the first time and open it for voting.
The live event will include presentation of The Sydney Statement by members of the Youth PoWR network, a performance by a young Baha’i, Sina Karimi, Q & A with the members of the Youth PoWR Coordinating Committee, and messages from the Acting Minister for Multicultural NSW, Dr Geoff Lee, Professor Kevin Dunn of Western Sydney University, and Rev Dr Patrick McInerney, Executive Officer of the Project.
The Sydney Statement project is supported by the NSW Government with a COMPACT Grant through Multicultural NSW and is underwritten by St Columban’s Mission Society.
The Sydney Statement will launch live on 15 October 2020 at https://fb.me/e/30XiUdwmH.
To vote for The Sydney Statement, register FREE at https://events.humanitix.com/vote-tss
All are welcome! Share, invite, unite!
