Country Launches First Interfaith Directory

February 27, 2006

Source: Scoop

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED0602/S00075.htm

On February 27, 2006 Scoop reported, "Despite the media image of people of different faiths being in continual conflict, New Zealanders from different religions are in regular and formal contact with each other, researchers in Victoria University’s Religious Studies programme have found. The first Directory of Interfaith and Ecumenical Activity in New Zealand will be launched at 4pm today (Monday 27 February) by Professor Paul Morris, Head of the University’s Religious Studies programme, at the National Interfaith Forum being held in Parliament’s Grand Hall today. The Directory, compiled and edited by PhD student Jonathan Brookes, includes a record of interfaith groups, activities and events, a record of Christian ecumenical groups, activities and events and an index of contact details for New Zealand faith groups. The Directory was a collaborative project with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade, the Asia New Zealand Foundation and the Human Rights Commission’s diversity action programme. Professor Morris, who was part of the New Zealand delegation to the first ASEAN-Pacific Conference on Interfaith Co-operation for Peace held in Jakarta in December 2004, said the Directory would aid understanding and dialogue between people of different religious groups."