Religious leaders across NSW unite in interfaith prayer
The Forum comes together
The peaceful grounds of the Baha’i Temple on Sydney’s Northern Beaches provided the venue for a special gathering of religious leaders from Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Baha’i, Mandaean and Zoroastrian faith communities last month.
Members of the NSW Religious Leaders Forum have agreed to come together four times a year in different places of worship, symbolic of their openness to learning about each other, working together, and building connections.
A special year
The Baha’i community was especially keen to host the gathering in 2017, as this year the community celebrates the bicentennial anniversary of the birth of Baha’u’llah, the Prophet-Founder of the Baha’i faith.
Baha’i community hosts led the religious leaders on a tour of the temple and grounds, and members sat in silent contemplation in the temple before taking turns in reciting prayers from their own sacred texts, and in their own languages.
Three members of the forum - Rabbi Zalman Kastel, Pandit Ramachandra Athreiya, and Sheikh Ahmed Abdo – feature in a special series in this month’s edition of The Point Magazine. The “Coffee and Conversation” series aims to model casual, thoughtful conversations between people across age, gender, and faith differences, and break down assumed barriers to social cohesion. View the series here:
The Swami and the Christian theology student
The Rabbi and the Muslim High School teacher
The Sheikh and the Hindu student
View photos of the day by clicking the image below:
The Point
The Religious Leaders Forum gathers in different places of worship, symbolic of the leaders’ openness to learning about each other, working together, and building connections.
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