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Depression, Anxiety, Stress, Hopelessness and Despair: A spiritual antidote

An abridged version of this article was originally presented at an interfaith forum entitled 'Depression, Anxiety, Street, Hoplessness and Despair: Great Faiths Unite to Discuss a Spiritual Antidote' on 23 December, 2011.

Firstly tonight my thanks go to the organisers of this event. It is vitally important in building a cohesive society and working towards a better Australia that the various faiths represented here work together with each other, and with other community groups and services within our cities and rural areas for the building up of society. It is an honour to share the stage with the other speakers tonight, and to be asked to present a perspective on this vitally important issue for the well-being of our community.

This month, the Relations with Other Faiths Working Group sends warm greetings to the Hindu community as they prepare to celebrate Maha Shivatri.

Celebrated by Hindus in honour of Lord Shiva, Maha Shivaratri takes place this year on 20 February. The festival falls on the moonles, 14th night of the new moon in the Hindu month of Phalgun. This equates to February / March in the Gregorian calendar.

We spend five minutes with Wilma Viswanathan.

The motivation comes from seeing so much change taking place in this great movement. At the Women’s Interfaith Network (WIN) meetings, my friends are always reporting new and evolving stories about their families and faiths. Intermarriage is more common now. Thankfully my family too (including my in-laws) has ‘blown out” into a multicultural and interfaith group. We can now boast that we are made up of Hindu, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim and Christians. Because of my reasonable knowledge of other faiths I am able to converse comfortably with my interesting family and friends. Obviously, I have more to learn and look forward to my WIN meetings.

25th December, 2011 / 7 January, 2012

Christmas is the day on which Christians celebrate the birth, or nativity, of the Lord, Jesus Christ. The Christmastide period lasts for twelve days following 25th December. While both Western and Orthodox churches observe 25th December as a fixed date for this occasion, some countries where Orthodox Christianity is practiced work on the Julian Calendar. The 25th December in the Julian Calendar corresponds with 7th January in the Gregorian Calendar. Therefore many Orthodox Christians in Australia celebrate Christmas on 7th January.