The SVD has signed up to The Sydney Statement, an interfaith charter for building bridges between people from different religions and is looking forward to supporting its aims in a variety of ways.

The Sydney Statement was developed by Youth PoWR (Parliament of the World’s Religions), a coalition of young adults from different religions, following two years of consultation and drafting.

“The members of Youth PoWR identified values and principles for a peaceful, just and harmonious multicultural, multi-religious society, and provided concrete steps for getting there,” said Ryan Epondulan, Youth PoWR Coordinator.

Although ‘named’ in terms of Sydney, the interfaith charter is relevant to New South Wales, Australia, and the world.

“The Sydney Statement has been described as ‘inspiring’, ‘comprehensive’, ‘timely’ and ‘courageous’,” Ryan said. “It forms people for growing interfaith relations which are authentic, honest and respectful. It also educates them about the different ways of carrying out this task.”

Youth PoWR are inviting their peers, religious leaders, co-religionists, believers from all religions and all people of goodwill to sign up to the values, principles and commitments of The Sydney Statement on the dedicated website.

SVD AUS Provincial Fr Asaeli Rass said he had signed the statement on the Province’s behalf and also urged individual confreres to sign up.

“The Sydney Statement fits in really well with the SVD commitment to interfaith relations, interfaith dialogue and interculturality,” he said.

“In the SVD, we work towards good interfaith relations in all that we do and we have particular ministries, such as the Janssen Spirituality Centre in Boronia, Victoria, which foster interfaith dialogue and engagement.

“In other parts of our Province, such as Thailand and Myanmar, interfaith relations is a part of our daily life and ministry.

“I like the commitments that flow from The Sydney Statement. This brings a practical dimension to the Statement’s aims.

“It also fits in well with the Plenary Council 2021 aim of working towards ecumenical and interfaith relations.”

The Sydney Statement is an initiative of the Columban Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations, in partnership with Western Sydney University. It is supported by the NSW Government with a COMPACT Grant through Multicultural NSW and underwritten by St Columban’s Mission Society.

You can find out more about it by visiting The Sydney Statement website.