Major faith groups in Australian have united to declare their support for an Indigenous voice in the Constitution.
The Catholic, Uniting and Anglican churches, the Australian National Council of Imams and the Executive Council of Australian Jewry on Friday will join Australian Sikhs, Buddhists, Hindus and the National Council of Churches at Barangaroo in Sydney to endorse the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne Peter Comensoli told The Oz: “I am personally moved by the deep yearning expressed in the Statement from the Heart, and I am so encouraged that faith leaders have offered a response from the heart of their own spiritual traditions.”
“My hope is simply that Catholics will be inspired by Jesus to join the hard work of finding constitutional recognition of the voice of first peoples into our parliament, and that reconciliation will find new energy and witness at this moment in history,” he said.
Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Kanishka Raffel said he welcomed the commitment of the new government to implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart “and look forward to that process unfolding in coming months”.
“Theirs is a story of dispossession and its intergenerational impact but also survival, generosity and hope. For those of us who know the reconciliation that comes from Jesus, we must resolve to humbly walk with those who have offered the hand of friendship, from the heart.”
Read the article in The Australian.