Australian interfaith statement created by young people launched

Australian interfaith statement created by young people launched

Youth PoWR (Parliament of the World’s Religions) launches The Sydney Statement, an interfaith charter for ‘building bridges between believers from different religions’

Youth PoWR, a coalition of young adults from different religions, have released The Sydney Statement, an interfaith charter for ‘Building Bridges Between People from Different Religions’. It is available now at www.thesydneystatement.org.au.

Ryan Epondulan, Youth PoWR Coordinator, said the interfaith network developed The Sydney Statement through two years of consultations 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.”

Although ‘named’ in terms of Sydney, the interfaith charter is relevant to NSW, Australia, and the world. Although ‘framed’ in terms of religions, the values and ideals of The Sydney Statement are readily accessible to secular worldviews and philosophies.

“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.”

You too can be part of it. 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.

The website is also packed with interfaith resources, such as the story of The Sydney Statement; the interfaith statements from other cities that inspired it; information, websites and articles on interreligious dialogue; and more.

A short version of The Sydney Statement is available as an attractively designed single-sided A1 poster and a double-sided A4 poster. The longer explanatory version of The Sydney Statement is available as an A5 booklet. Posters and booklet are available for free download from the website. Professionally printed posters and booklet are also available for purchase from the website’s shop.

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.

With thanks to Youth PoWR and The Sydney Statement.