Interfaith ecology project in Auckland
December 9, 2008
The Rasheed Memorial Dawah Trust (RMDT) held a meeting this Sunday launching an interfaith project to restore the Onehunga Bay wetlands in Auckland’s Manukau Harbour.
About twenty people came to the well-publicised meeting, billed as a planning session for Christian-Muslim co-operation. I was invited to attend the meeting, and jumped at the opportunity for several reasons:
- The Wellington Council for Christians and Jews is exploring ways of taking a more “Abrahamic” focus
- I have great respect for planning – too many initiatives are approached in an ad-hoc manner
- I had corresponded previously with Aarif Rasheed, who has been very inclusive, welcoming, and supportive
I was the only Jew present, in fact I got the impression that I might have been the first Jew that some of the participants had met in person. There were only a couple of Christians present, so nearly all of the participants were Muslim
The Big Idea behind the project is to get people of different faiths together with a common purpose and shared goal resulting in public good with and positive outcomes for the environment. The Onehunga Bay wetland has been degraded over the years to the point where it covers only roughly 80 square metres, and the project’s aim is to restore it to cover about 4 hectares. That’s an ambitious goal by anyone’s measure, and will have a knock-on effect improving the water quality in the surrounding estuary and bay.
Hopefully the good people of Auckland will be able to demonstrate to the world that people from different faiths can join hands and work together for positive outcomes for their cities and the environment as a whole.
For me, it was great to see a group of focussed Muslims reaching out and taking the lead in an environmental project. It’s an example that the rest of us would do well to follow.
If you know anyone who might like to get involved, contact RMDT.
Related posts:
- Multifaith 2008 Conference at University of Auckland
- Great way to experience interfaith contact
- Wellington Interfaith Prayer Vigil for Peace in the Middle East – audio
- Audio: Yehuda Stolov on how to run an interfaith encounter
- Interfaith dialogue: Is it all a waste of time?
Entry Filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: auckland, christianity, christians, environment, islam, jews, judaism, manukau, muslims, onehunga, wetlands.
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1. Javier DOmínguez Angulo | January 10th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Dear Lady/Sir,
I send to you a short message I gave to Nuseibeh family, custodians of the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. A member of the family (not a representative) desired to me best wishes. I sent to you to the Jerusalem Post but I think they didn´t know exactly what say, looking their answer. If you consider it, I´d like publish just the message to Nuseibeh family in your web like “letters to editor” for instance. Thank you very much,
Javier Domínguez
“Dear family Nuseibeh,
My name is Javier Domínguez (christian catholic, spanish) and recently I knew about the existence of your family and your historical role thanks to a review (“Altaïr”, special issue to Jerusalem, november 2008). I really was surprised.
I know that the differences between christians doesn´t came from God, came from human arrogance, from the desire of power. And it´s the same for the whole human being, we continously interrumpt the dialogue between God and us, and God feels an absolute piety for us because continously call us, and wait for us.
Yor family waited for centuries for peace and brotherhood in Jerusalem and the rest of the world, like all the world´s families. Your mission is hard, the normal situation should be the convivence and not load with anormal circumstances like your family does. My congratulations for avoid conflicts, my excuses like christian for our confussion and disorders during many centuries. Thank you very very much for your love, for your humanity, sincerely.
If we look for love will be live together and in peace, in Jerusalem and in the rest of the world. 6 millions of jews shouted to heaven pacifically and Israel returned to Holy Land, after a long Diaspora maybe so long like the time between Abrán and Jesus, only when they reaction to agression peacefully they came back. But during decades they seemed have forgotten this mercy. I don´t know the future, but sometimes I think they have 70 years for understand this, and I hope that they don´t will built a new Auschwitz in Holy Land because if not then they would be the news executioners if Palestinians reaction with peace, and all the world could appreciate that God choose some sons only to announce to the rest that God loves the world, not than there are some sons better. I don´t know the future.
Holy Land is where the three religions meets. The mediterraneum sea is like a throat that transmited from Jerusalem definitively to the five continents the fact that there is only one God, a God that love us without limit.
God bless you.
Javier”