Universal Message of Love Panel

On Wednesday 4th May, 2011, the Affinity Intercultural Foundation hosted an event at the Auburn Town Hall, Sydney entitled 'Universal Message of Love'. The aim of this event was to provide an opportunity for people of faith to speak out against attacks on places of worship, particularly those that have happened in the local Auburn area.

A full report on the proceedings of the evening is available on the Affinity Intercultural Foundation website.

The keynote address of the evening was presented by Sheikh Afeefuddin Al Jailani, a visiting Muslim scholar from Malaysia. Responses were presented by Mr Rajeev Kapoor of the Hindu community, and the Rev. Dr Mele Fakahua-Ratcliffe of the Uniting Church in Australia. The following is the speech delivered by the Rev. Fakahua-Ratcliffe, and is reproduced with her kind permission.

RESPONSE TO SHEIKH AFEEDFUDDIN AL JAILANI

I greet you all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I pay respect to the traditional owners of this land. I bring warm greetings to you, Sheikh Afeefuddin Al Jailani, our distinguished speaker on the Universal Message of Love this evening.

I bring greetings to the distinguished leaders of the Muslim community, to the Imam Bilal Aksoy from the Auburn Gallipoli Mosque, and to the Muslim Community in Auburn and outside of Auburn. I also bring greetings to you: Mr Rajeev Kapoor of the Sri Mandir Hindu Temple in Auburn, and I also bring greetings to all the other distinguished guests who are present here tonight. Greetings to all of you who have come far and wide this evening to hear our distinguished guest, and to affirm our conviction that we stand in solidarity: working side by side with each other, as the people of this great community of Auburn. I bring you all these warm greetings: from the Auburn Uniting Church Parish; from the Rodger Page congregation and the Harold Wood congregation both in Auburn; and from the Rev Dr Moulton congregation in Berala.

I am the Auburn Uniting Church parish minister, serving these three great congregations. Also present tonight is Auburn Uniting Church council chairperson, Mr. Sitiveni Havea, and some members from the Auburn Uniting Church Parish. Also present with me here tonight is my husband the Rev. Stephen Ratcliffe, a fellow Uniting Church minister, serving the Leichhardt Uniting Church, and my father, the Rev. Sione Alo Fakahua, a retired Uniting Church minister. 

Auburn Uniting Church is one of the Christian denominations in the Auburn Municipality. One of our three churches, Rodger Page Congregation in Helena Street, Auburn, will celebrate 124 years of life and witness in Auburn, this year in August, 2011. My presence as the representative of the Auburn Uniting Church this evening is not new. My predecessor and my past colleague, the Rev. Dr Keith Rowe, now a retired minister in New Zealand had been in the forefront of interfaith dialogue with the Muslim community here in Auburn over ten years ago. I pay tribute to him for the foundational work he has done.

I also acknowledge the ongoing dialogue between the Uniting Church in Australia in all levels, with people of other faiths, in bringing about a better understanding and appreciation of the great faiths we each here represent, our contribution to the spiritual welfare of our fellow human beings, and our contribution to the country and community in which we all share and live, and more importantly, the greater understanding and appreciation that gives birth to peace.

Each of our traditions preaches and teaches peace. It is the longing in the heart of every human being, to live in peace with oneself, with others, and with God. In the Christian tradition, among the many names given to Jesus, he was called the Prince of Peace.

Jesus’ disciples ran away and denied Jesus when Jesus was close to his death on the cross. The disciples feared for their lives; that what happened to Jesus will also happen to them. But when Jesus rose again from the dead, he came and greeted his disciples and said “Peace be with you”. He did not say to Peter “you denied me three times”, he did not say to his disciples “why did you run away”, or “where were you when I needed you most?” Instead, he came and stood in their midst and said “Peace be with you”, meaning “I have forgiven you”. We experience peace when we forgive others, and when others forgive us. 

Peace has become the Christian greeting before sharing the Lord’s Supper. In Matthew 5: 23-24. Jesus taught, “If you are offering your gift at the altar, and then remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” For Christians it is an opportunity to reconcile, to make up, to forgive one another, and to live in peace and harmony. Jesus also said in his Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the peacemakers for they are sons and daughters of God.” (Matt 5:9)

We Christians should be people of peace, as our Lord taught us, but unfortunately we have failed many times. So, on behalf of us tonight, we apologize for failing to care for you, our neighbours.

This evening, I acknowledge the friendship, the outreach, and the tireless work that Mr Mehmet Saral, Secretary/Director of the Affinity Intercultural Foundation has done since I started work in Auburn back in February, 2006. I came to Auburn shortly after a fire that broke out in December 2005 that burnt down one of our church halls in Helena Street, Auburn. At that time, some people made allegations that it was a Muslim person or persons who had done this act. Well, tonight I can say to you that this allegation has never been proven. More importantly to us members of the Auburn Uniting Church, we can say truthfully, how impressed we were with the charitable response of the local Muslim community.

On Ash Wednesday 2006, a group of young Muslim people together with Mehmet Saral, and some other leaders from the Muslim community joined us in our Ash Wednesday service. It was symbolic to us, that out of the ashes of the old building, something new took its place: a friendship developed between the Uniting Church and the Muslim community and continues to this day.

The Auburn Muslim community gifted us with $500 collected by the young people from the Gallipoli Mosque. Not only did they give us their gifts, but they also came to our church service to bring them. In appreciation of this gift of grace from the Muslim community, the Tongan community gave the local Muslim young people some traditional tapa and mats as a sign of our appreciation. The people in the Auburn Uniting Church were also given a treat of Noah’s Pudding that evening, which was delicious. My husband and I were also invited later to a meal during the celebration of the Ramadan festival in a Muslim family home. I was given the privilege to say grace before the meal. The Muslim women in Auburn have also invited our Tongan women’s group to sing and to be present in their Women of Faith dinners in the past.

You have certainly shown Auburn Uniting Church that you are a good neighbour. In Matthew 22: 36-40 a young lawyer once asked Jesus, which is the greatest commandment in the law? Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment and a second is like it, you shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments depends all the law and the prophets.” You have certainly fulfilled what we Christians had been commanded to fulfil by our Lord Jesus Christ: you love God, and you love and care for your neighbours. 

I grew up in Tonga, had all my education there until I was thirteen and had the opportunity to study in the high school and university in Fiji. I had the opportunity to come to Australia for further studies and to America. I also had the opportunity to travel widely as far away as Russia, Turkey, Greece and most if not all of the European Countries, America, and Canada and the South Pacific. Once I stepped out of my own tiny island Kingdom of Tonga, the horizon kept getting wider and wider, and so is my understanding and appreciation of different cultures and traditions. Standing here tonight is no different, I am stepping outside the comfort zone of my own faith, to see the big picture, and ask myself, what is my contribution to peace outside of the confinement of my own church. Here I stand before you, and before God, to pledge to working with you for peace and harmony in this great place that we live in, Auburn.

I believe that the values that we each bring from our own cultures, our own traditions, and our own faiths, can enrich each other spiritually, mentally, and physically. Yes, we do have our differences of opinions, but that is not a bad thing. Differences provide variety that enables us to see things from a different angle. Just as we see God’s creation there are varieties of people, trees, weather, cultures, languages, colour, animals and so on. These differences are different strands of life that create the colourful and rich tapestry; that make life more interesting.

Among us Christians, we have our differences, but we try to live with those differences, and it is not a reason to cut friendship or ties. Now and then we need a healthy debate about what we believe, but it is all part of the life we live. The more we talk the more we understand and appreciate each other. A lot of marriages break down because husbands and wives fail to communicate. They drift apart and eventually divorce. It is like that in the community in which we share. We can be so busy with our own lives and work, that if we fail to communicate, we draw further and further apart. I appreciate your effort tonight, to bring in the great faiths we each represent, to meet and to talk.

To the Muslim community in Auburn, you had been a good neighbour to us, the Auburn Uniting Church. We hope to continue to develop the great friendship in which you have so kindly invested your time and energy. My apology for being so busy with our own life, that we have not reciprocated your kindness equally. May I also extend the same friendship to Mr Rajeev Kapoor of the Sri Mandir Hindu Temple in Auburn and the Hindu community.

Thank you for inviting me and my community tonight. I pledge, with my people, to communicate, to dialogue, to come together as people of Auburn, and to maintain the peace we have enjoyed, living in this great municipality of Auburn, with their motto: One people, different cultures. 

We prove tonight that we can stand together, work together, and talk together. Yes, we can live as neighbours peacefully, and harmoniously, and more importantly we can help each other along the pilgrim way.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Parish Minister: Auburn Uniting Church, NSW.