Resources Page of Glen Waverley Inter Church Council
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A list of the various Articles of Faith for a range of Christian Churches
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Service Times at Waverley Churches
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Map of Waverley Church Locations
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Timetable of Glen Waverley Interchurch Council Prayer Requests
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Sign in Glen Waverley Central Reserve
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2006 Census Data for Monash Area Churches
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Mount Waverley Inter-Church Council Annual Report for 2008
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List of Churches participating in the 2008 Pentecost event
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Various President's Reports:
2007,
2008,
2009,
2010,
2011,
2012,
2013,
2014,
2015,
2016,
Report from The Royal Commission into Family Violence
Dear Faith Leaders
Thank you very much for attending today’s consultation session
at the Royal Commission into Family Violence.
The Commissioners found the session very informative, and are
grateful for the time and insights you gave us. We hope that the
session was valuable for each of you as well.
The matters discussed will help the Commission in its task of
developing proposals for future initiatives to prevent and
respond to family violence. We have made comprehensive notes of
the session for this purpose.
At the conclusion of the session Chairperson Marcia Neave
summarised the following key themes that had emerged from the
discussion:
- Recognition that religious communities are microcosms of
our community as a whole, and just as family violence occurs
in the community at large, it also occurs within faith
communities;
- Recognition of the breadth of violence experienced in
faith communities – not just intimate partner violence and
physical violence, but also other forms of abuse such as elder
abuse, child abuse and financial abuse;
- The importance of theological work around contemporary
interpretation of religious texts that might otherwise be seen
to condone violent and controlling behaviour;
- The importance of promoting gender equality, and avoiding
language which may reinforce ideas about gender
inequality;
- The role of religious organisations in pre-marriage and
post-marriage education;
- The value of supporting people to intervene at the
grassroots level – through active bystander training;
- The role that religious organisations can play in
educating communities about family violence, and in prevention
work;
- The role that young people could play in this area, in
particular in combating the impacts of pornography and
representations of violence on the internet and in the
media;
- The need for faiths to train religious leaders about
recognising and responding to family violence, particularly
those trained a long time ago who may not understand the
dimensions of family violence;
- The assistance that might be provided to people in
religious organisations about where to refer people
experiencing family violence, for example legal assistance and
housing services;
- The importance of working with mainstream agencies to
increase their cultural competency so that they are better
able to respond to family violence within particular
communities;
- The opportunity to draw on teachings about compassion,
dignity and respect which are common to all faith
traditions.
If you have any queries in relation to the Commission’s work,
or wish to provide us with any further information, please do
not hesitate to contact me.
We wish you well for your ongoing work in your own communities,
as well as through the various multi- faith forums in which you
participate.
Thank you again, and kind regards.
Mary Polis
Chief Executive Officer
PO Box 535 Flinders Lane VIC 8009
Ph: 03 8689 0524
mob: 0488 472 304
Email: mary DOT polis AT rcfv DOT com DOT au