The following article has been published in J‑Wire. 

Peak Interfaith Dialogue has first Melbourne meeting

Community Newsdesk
J‑Wire
September 7, 2018
Delegates rep­res­ent­ing the peak national organ­isa­tions of Aus­trali­an Jews, Chris­ti­ans and Muslims met in Melbourne this week to discuss Australia’s unique religious and inter­faith envir­on­ment and ways of strength­en­ing rela­tion­ships.

The Aus­trali­an National Dialogue of Chris­ti­ans, Muslims & Jews (ANDCMJ), inter­na­tion­ally recog­nised as “best practice” in com­mu­nic­a­tion and cooper­a­tion, brought together par­ti­cipants from the Aus­trali­an Fed­er­a­tion of Islamic Councils (AFIC), the Executive Council of Aus­trali­an Jewry (ECAJ) and the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA).
Meeting in West Melbourne at the offices of the Islamic Council of Victoria, the dis­cus­sion focused on the progress of relations since the Dialogue first met, at The Great Synagogue in Sydney, more than 16 years ago.
The session was co-chaired by Jeremy Jones, for the ECAJ, Sheikh Amin Hady for AFIC and Sister Patricia Madigan for the NCCA. All three were par­ti­cipants in the first meeting and in nearly all of the 51 sessions which have taken place since.
The role of the ANDCMJ in inspiring and encour­aging a number of important local, national and inter­na­tion­al inter­faith activ­it­ies was a feature of the dis­cus­sion.
Sheikh Hady noted the way the ANDCMJ had con­trib­uted to mentoring and encour­aging a gen­er­a­tion of leaders who were students when the dialogue began and are now leaders in their respect­ive faiths, Sister Madigan noted the impact of the Dialogue on the inter­faith scene in Australia and Mr Jones looked at the inter­na­tion­al situation, par­tic­u­larly in Asia and the Pacific, and how the Dialogue had made positive and con­struct­ive con­tri­bu­tions.
After the formal meeting, delegates toured the on-site mosque and continued the con­ver­sa­tion about religion in Australia in the 21^st Century.
The Jewish del­eg­a­tion was Jeremy Jones, Honorary Life Member and former President of the ECAJ and Director of Inter­na­tion­al and of Community Affairs for the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC), Frances Prince, Executive Member of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria with the Mul­ti­cul­tur­al and Inter­faith Portfolio, Melinda Jones, Board Member of the National Council of Jewish Women of Australia and Sharyn Mittelman, a member of the ECAJ’s National Dialogue with the Uniting Church in Australia and Senior Policy Analyst with AIJAC.

Image: ANDCMJ delegates. (Source: J‑Wire)