19 October - The 7th International Interreligious Abraham Conference

Affinity Intercultural Foundation welcomes you to attend:

Date: Sunday, 19th of October 2008

Time: 11am to 3:30pm

Location: Webster Theatre, University of Sydney, City Road Camperdown.

Cost: $20 (Includes Lunch and Afternoon Tea)

Keynote Address: Prof Larissa Behrendt, Prof of Law & Director of Research
at the Jumbunna Indigenous House of Learning at the University of
Technology, Sydney

Panel Chair: Mr Richard Morecroft, former ABC TV News anchorman

Theme: Walking together: Our faiths and reconciliation.

The Australian Government has recently declared an apology to the "stolen generation" of Aboriginal Australians on behalf of Australia. Yet even after this landmark event, much still needs to be done. Delicate and careful considerations are needed from all parties. A robust and accommodating approach to reconciliation must be taken if we are to share this land. The Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam need to listen to handwork together with indigenous voices to recognise injustice and to explore common traditions of offering forgiveness and moving forward in a new direction. The Abraham Conference provides a practical way forward for people of all faiths and backgrounds to become aware of our responsibilities
and thus work towards reconciliation.



For further information please click on below link:

http://www.affinity.org.au/7IIAC%20-%20Abraham%20Conf%20Program%20v2.pdf

Pacific Calling for Climate Justice

The Pacific Calling Partnership invites you to a participatory forum Pacific Calling for Climate Justice a human rights framework?

9.00am - 5pm Saturday 25 October 2008
Gleeson Auditorium Australian Catholic University
25A Barker Rd Strathfield NSW
Forum

The forum will open with Indigenous representatives from Australia and the Pacific speaking about the effects of climate change on their people. The forum will then explore how an effective human rights framework can respond to calls for climate justice from our neighbours:

* WHAT STRUCTURES ARE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE INTERNATIONALLY THAT CAN BE APPLIED IN OUR NEIGHBOURHOOD?
* WHERE ARE THE GAPS?
* WHERE ARE THE STRESSES EMERGING?
* WHAT STRUCTURES DO WE NEED TO PUT IN PLACE FOR THE FUTURE?

The forum will be participatory and is open to as broad a range of organisations as possible. All who come will be contributing to the outcomes which will include recommendations to be taken to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Poland in December 2008.

Call for Papers and Abstracts
If you would like to present at the forum please send the title and a brief description of about 200 words by email to jillf@erc.org.au, or post Attention: Jill Finnane PO Box 2219 Homebush West LPO NSW 2140, or fax to 02 9745 9770

The DEADLINE for receiving abstracts is 31 August. Papers will be 20 minutes in length. You will be notified by 7 September, by email or phone if your proposal is accepted.

Registration
Fee (includes lunch, morning and afternoon tea) (will depend on how much sponsorship we receive) Business/Government, NGO, Concession, Student

Early bird registration must be received by Monday 1 October 2008 to be eligible for the discount. Cheques should be made payable to the Edmund Rice Centre and posted to the above address.
ABN 4063781303

Dear friends,
Next week, a group of small islands' leaders plan to take the unprecedented step of putting a resolution before the United Nations calling upon the Security Counci to address climate change as a pressing threat to international peace and security.

It seems a small ask for all of us to sign the petition organised by Avaaz. Please consider signing the petition now! Click here

Signatures will be presented to the UN by the islands' ambassadors as they introduce their resolution next week. States who are sponsoring the resolution are Fiji, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, joined by Canada and Turkey.

President Remengesau of Palau, a small island in the Pacific, recently said: 'Palau has lost at least one third of its coral reefs due to climate change related weather patterns. We also lost most of our agricultural production due to drought and extreme high tides. These are not theoretical, scientific losses -- they are the losses of our resources and our livelihoods.... For island states, time is not running out. It has run out. And our path may very well be the window to your own future and the future of our planet".

The more signatures are delivered to the UN next week, the more urgently this call will ring out to protect our common future. So please sign now: For a draft of the Small Islands States Resolution, please click here

You might also consider sending an email to the Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Affairs, Duncan Kerr, asking for Australia to support their resolution. This is one of the issues the delegation from the Pacific Calling Partnership will take up with him when it meets with him on 15th September so it would be helpful for you to have written to him from your organisation or as an indivdual before we meet. His email address is duncan.kerr.mp@aph.gov.au.

Thank you for your support
Jill Finnane
Pacific Calling Partnership
Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education
Flemington