Faith Responses to Natural Disaster

This event report was written by Martha Ruth Hills, Greenfaith. The report first appeared on the ARRCC website on Thursday 8 January 2015.

In September, Theresa Rajah, Boroondara’s Community Development Officer – Access and Diversity, on behalf of the Boroondara Interfaith Network, offered GreenFaith/ARRCC  a partnership proposal to run a forum on “Faith responses to natural disaster”.

The evening began with food prepared by the Hari Krishnas.

The first and principle speaker was Dr. David Karoly, from the University of Melbourne. He spoke for about 20 minutes on the changes in the earth’s climate in recent decades and how this has made storms, floods, droughts and other “natural disasters” more frequent and more intense. Although no one may be able to determine that a particular weather event is “due” to climate change, there is plenty of evidence of general and intense changes, even here in Victoria.

Speakers from these faiths responded:

• Judaism
• Christianity
• Hinduism

Each spoke for 5-20 minutes.

In the ensuing question and answer period, many of the audience had questions, especially for Dr. Karoly. In fact, there wasn’t enough time for everyone who wanted to speak.

There seemed to be an interest in following up this forum, perhaps on possible responses.

Martha Ruth Hills
7th December 2014

– See more at: http://www.arrcc.org.au/forum-report-faith-responses-to-natural-disasters#sthash.hosV0dhY.dpuf