The Jewish New Year – Rosh HaShanah

Happy Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah 2019 will begin in the evening of Sunday, 29 September and ends in the evening of Tuesday, 1 October 2019

Rosh Hashanah, literally meaning the “beginning [of] the year” is the Jewish New Year.

What greetings are appropriate on Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur?

On Rosh HaShanah, we can say “Shanah tovah um’tukah,” which means “May you have a good and sweet new year.” The greeting can be shortened to “Shanah tovah” (“A good year”). As on any happy holiday or festival, we can say “Chag sameach!” (“Happy holiday!”).

Another traditional greeting for both Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur is a Yiddish greeting, “Gut yontif,” which means “Wishing you a good holiday.”

Special greetings on Yom Kippur include “G’mar chatima tovah,” which means, “May you be inscribed (or sealed) for good [in the Book of Life],” and “tzom kal,” which is used to wish others an “easy fast.”

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Navaratri – the Nine Days of the Goddess

Durga slaying the demonNavaratri, or the nine nights, is the Indian festival of nine holy nights which celebrates the victory of the goddess Shakti over evil. The days fall on the nine auspicious days as per the lunar calendar of Hinduism. The principal forms of the Goddess are known as Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati. This is a most popular festival in Hinduism that celebrates the victory of good over evil. Navaratri 2019 will begin on Sunday, 29 September and ends on Tuesday, 8 October 2019.
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Global Climate Strike: Shepparton

Global Climate StrikeShepparton Interfaith Network supports the climate strike on Friday, 20 September 2019, in Maude Street Mall. As people of spirit and faith, we are joining the youth climate strikers to call for sweeping, urgent climate action and to make sure that our response is grounded in the core values shared by all our traditions: love, justice, and compassion.
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First Do No Harm

First, do no harm


Sometimes it seems like Buddhism doesn’t have much relevance to environmental problems. Can Buddhist philosophy solve climate change? Can meditation bring back lost species? I think about these things much of the time, trying to find my way in a world of plummeting ecosystem health. Every semester my students say, “But what can one person do?” If I don’t have some good answers, they won’t be able to move forward with the important work of saving the planet.

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With hajj under threat, it’s time Muslims joined the climate movement

kaaba at MeccaAccording to research published last week by US scientists, hajj is set to become a danger zone. As soon as next year, they say, summer days in Mecca could exceed the “extreme danger” heat-stress threshold. The news comes just weeks after over 2 million people completed their journey of a lifetime. The environmental threat to the holy pilgrimage is a panic button for British Muslims like me, signaling that the climate crisis is endangering an age-old sacred rite.
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UN International Day of Peace

UN International Day of Peace LogoUN International Day of Peace this year occurs on Saturday 21 September 2019. This year’s theme draws attention to the importance of combating climate change as a way to protect and promote peace throughout the world. In the lead up to the International Day of Peace on 21 September, the United Nations calls upon all to take action to tackle climate change. Every human is part of the solution – from turning off the lights to taking public transport, to organising an awareness raising campaign in your community. The Theme is Climate Action for World Peace
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Lay community key to reforming Catholicism

Book Cover - Getting Back on MissionOne of the most extraordinary recent examples of commitment is the loyalty shown by many post-Vatican II Catholics to the church. Despite their steadfast support for the emphases of that Council, these lay Catholics, supported by many priests, are often seen as a ‘nuisance’ by senior church leaders whose real focus has been protecting their own positions and clericalist ideology. Their commitment has been further tested by the sexual abuse scandals and the abject failure of many bishops in dealing with them.
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Faith Based Urban Thinkers Campus

Urban Shalom Society LogoUN Habitat invites you to join in UN Habitat’s World Urban Campaign’s faith initiative, Faith and the Path Towards a Better Quality of City Life. UN Habitat together with World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), the Urban Shalom Society (USS) and a number of local partners are running a series of faith based Urban Thinkers Campuses, aimed at encouraging faith communities to work together on the creation of cities and urban environments where all can flourish.
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What Can We Learn from an Android Buddhist Preacher?

Kannon, the robot preacher at a zen-Rinzai Buddhist templeWith automation increasingly replacing human work in many industries, Cristina Moon examines the shortcomings of artificial intelligence when it comes to the intimate role of a priest. For example, one question is, Can a robot vibrate the frequency of enlightenment?

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What is it Like to be a Childless Woman?

Woman in reflection - in a playground


Only I knew my unborn child, she lived inside me, in my mind, in my heart, in my dreams. I can still see her. I remember the decades of longing for her to grow inside my belly and the yearning to experience that powerful initiation of giving birth into mother-hood, the desire to feed her from my breasts, sheltering her beneath the curtain of my long hair as she fed. I remember my dream child’s full heavy limbed body lying satiated in my arms, one of her own plump little arms flung out in complete acceptance of the safety of my embrace. Her tiny hand closing and unclosing, her eyes moving beneath her eyelids as she dreamed. Her small moist mouth, milk dribbling from one corner down her smooth velvet cheek. Her soft curls glinting in the moonlight … her father stroking those tiny silken springs of hair and smiling at me.

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Season of Creation

Global support continues to grow for the Season of Creation, an annual celebration of prayer and action to protect creation that is celebrated by tens of thousands of Christians of all traditions around the world. Running from 1 September to 4 October, the Season of Creation’s beginning and end dates are linked with the concern for creation in the Eastern and the Western traditions of Christianity, respectively.
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