serving the faith communities of the Goulburn Valley
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Coinciding with Homelessness Week 2019, The Bridge Youth Service will be hosting a special screening of Life After the Oasis: a follow up to the 2008 documentary THE OASIS. Shark Island Productions revisit the original participants whose chaotic lives shocked the nation! 10 years on we see what journey these young people have been on.
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As tensions mount in the Middle East, it might be easy from the West to imagine the Islamic world locked in an internecine political struggle, with each side wielding threats of open conflict and the violent rhetoric of exclusion.
Beyond the testy politics, however, Islamic religious leaders are speaking in greater unison than ever before. The message we are advancing is one of moderate Islam, and the promotion of peace, tolerance and love.
Many religions honour their founder or great teacher in various ways. Hindu dharma is perhaps unique in honouring the guru or spiritual master as a principle in itself beyond any particular personality, philosophy or revelation.The true guru is a position of spiritual guidance, the illuminating presence of a higher awareness. The guru is not limited to any physical person, however exalted he or she may be.
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The Victorian Government has amended the Planning and Environment Act 1987 to define affordable housing. This is to encourage an increase in affordable housing through local councils seeking a voluntary affordable housing contribution, as part of planning approval processes.
The City of Greater Shepparton has taken action to lay the foundations for a Draft Greater Shepparton Affordable Housing Policy. This policy will look at how issues around social housing, affordability and homelessness can be addressed at a local level.
The U.N. General Assembly has adopted a resolution designating August 22 as the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief. The resolution expresses concern at “continuing acts of intolerance and violence based on religion or belief against individuals, including against persons belonging to religious communities and minorities”.
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Homelessness is on the agenda at a networking event in Shepparton next month.
The morning tea, hosted by Hume Region Homelessness Network, is at Friars Cafe on August 6.
The network is made up of 14 homelessness funded agencies across the region which raise awareness for homelessness in communities and collaborate on relevant issues.
Recently, some Reform Jewish teens spent Shabbat in Krakow, Poland; others experienced morning prayer in the Negev desert. Still other teens recited Kiddush surrounded by the rolling hills of the Galilee, and those teens who were visiting Israel’s Mediterranean coast said HaMotzi, the prayer over the challah, there. In so doing, our participants truly represent the breadth and depth of the Jewish experience, connecting ancient prayers, texts, and stories with the eternal Jewish reality.
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On Saturday, 6 July, people from the Catholic Diocese of Sandhurst (Bendigo) attended a homelessness forum at St Brendan’s Church to consider the Catholic Bishops Social Justice Statement 2018-2019 on Homelessness, and to seek ways for Parishes to respond to this issue. This was a well attended event with some 70 people attending.
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NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia each July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC is celebrated not only in Indigenous communities, but by Australians from all walks of life. In 2019, Naidoc Week is celebrated from 7-14 July, with the theme, Voice, Treaty, Truth: Lets walk together for a shared future. In Greater Shepparton, NAIDOC Week commences with a Flag Raising ceremony at Rumbalara Aboriginal Cooperative on the morning of Monday, 7 July.
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Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt AM has met with the designer of the Aboriginal flag, Harold Thomas, following various concerns around its reproduction and use.
Both agreed the meeting was warm and friendly, with the Minister gaining a deeper understanding of Mr Thomas’s views on the matter. In short, Mr Thomas wants this national flag flown proudly and respectfully by all Australians.
My language is Yorta Yorta which was and is spoken by the majority of the clan groups within the Yorta Yorta Nation.
It was in 2013 that I was first really exposed to Yorta Yorta language. I was 24 at the time.
I had only grown up with a few Yorta Yorta words until I started working as a language support worker in a local primary school that had just introduced a Yorta Yorta language program.
I had no teaching experience before I started teaching. I was only a few steps in front of the kids with my own language learning.
An innovative new resource kit has been developed in NSW to help local Aboriginal communities feel more welcome in palliative care settings and start inclusive and culturally appropriate conversations about end of life planning. “Into the Dreaming” is A Guide for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through “Sorry Business”.
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In observance of NAIDOC Week, we bring you the story of a Yorta Yorta nation song, Bura Fera, sometimes called Ngarra Burra Ferra; an earlier hymn was translated into the Yorta Yorta language, which expressed their identification with the Jews as the dispossessed of the Book of Exodus.
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Border Politics – an Australian documentary which follows Human Rights lawyer Julian Burnside as he examines attitudes to refugees and human migration patterns worldwide – will be screened in Shepparton on evening of Thursday 18 July. Julian Burnside will be present for a Q and A session.
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Australia has two distinct Indigenous peoples: Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Spirituality is expressed differently between Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders. Torres Strait Islanders’ spirituality comes from stories of the ‘Tagai’. Torres Strait Islander communities celebrate the Coming of the Light Festival – a religious celebration on the 1st of July each year.
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I have been asked to speak about my experience with refugees, as a Christian. It is my Christian faith which motivates me to work with refugees, and those less fortunate than myself. I am a part of this Catholic Parish of St. Brendan’s, Shepparton.
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Mumtaz Ali Khan, popularly known as Sri M, world-renowned spiritual leader, author, thinker and educationist hails from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. His forefathers were Pashtuns, who moved from Peshawar to erstwhile Travancore as bodyguards to the Maharaja. He was born in 1948 in a fairly affluent family. At the age of 19, he joined the Ramakrishna Mission at Belur Math, without informing his parents, after writing his exams.
Later, the young man wandered throughout the length and breadth of Bharat, particularly the Himalayas. From Hardwar, he travelled by foot to Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath. One day, while walking along the rough terrain beyond Badrinath, he came across a cave called Vyasa Guha. It was here that he met his master, Maheshwar Babaji, who induced him into a deep meditation. Then came a stint as a trustee of the Krishnamurti Foundation, where he met and married a Saraswat Brahmin. He now lives in Madanapalle in Andhra Pradesh, where he started a school for the economically deprived and the backward.
Apprenticed to A Himalayan Master – A Yogi’s Autobiography is a book which brings to life matters rarely touched on, the wandering Nath masters who live for hundreds of years, the existence and encounters with Mahavatar Babaji and other legendary great spirituals. It is a book which enlightens the heart and raises deep questions within about personal spiritual practice. While this is simply an autobiography, it touches the core within. This book is a well-described narrative of wanderings with a great spiritual master through the Himalayas, and accounts of the many spirituals and great teachers encountered.
The Armenian Patriarchate was established in Jerusalem almost 2,000 years ago. Many Armenians had gone on pilgrimage to Jerusalem after converting to Christianity in 301 AD. They had built a part of Sourp Hagop Convent in 420 AD. By the sixth Century, Armenians had constructed 66 religious institutions in Jerusalem.
In 626 AD, the Armenian Patriarch Apraham of Jerusalem, seeing the looming dangers of Islamic expansion and conquest, went to the Holy Islamic city of Mecca with a delegation of 40 prominent Armenians to meet with Prophet Muhammad to secure his protection.
Ever since 9/11, the word “Jihad” has come to be one of the most well-known concepts to non-Muslims. Jihad is considered the main concept that radical groups adopt as a core ideology. It is true that “Jihad” is a genuine Islamic concept that cannot be negated or ignored, yet the point to be considered now shall be “how to correctly understand Jihad”. In fact, understanding the true meaning of Jihad relies much on realising its purposes as understood from the basic sources of Islam. This is the crucial point that reveals the reality of the concept and guides us where to stand regarding this term.
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