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Regional Interfaith Dialogue

Published in site - Site History
10Dec 2010
Written by Administrator 
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The inaugural Regional Interfaith Dialogue was held in Yogyakarta from 6-7 December 2004 and hosted jointly by Australia and Indonesia

  • The meeting was an initiative of the then Foreign Ministers of Australia and Indonesia, Mr Downer and Dr Wirajuda, which they announced in July 2004.
  • The inaugural Regional Interfaith Dialogue was established with the aim of promoting understanding and tolerance between the faith groups of South-East Asia and encouraging religious leaders' roles in strengthening mainstream voices within their respective communities.

Following the inaugural Regional Interfaith Dialogue, New Zealand and the Philippines joined Australia and Indonesia as co-sponsors.

Subsequent Regional Interfaith Dialogues (RID) were held as follows

  • the 2nd RID was hosted by the Philippines in Cebu in March 2006
  • the 3rd RID was hosted by New Zealand in Waitangi in May 2007
  • the 4th RID was hosted by Cambodia, with Australia’s support, in Phnom Penh in April 2008
  • the 5th, and most recent, RID was hosted by Australia in Perth in October 2009.

Each RID results in the development of a 'Declaration' by delegates, setting out agreed outcomes and recommendations for action.

RID participants are drawn from the major faith groups of the co-sponsoring countries, the remaining eight ASEANs, East Timor, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

The 5th RID had the theme 'Future Faith Leaders: Regional Challenges and Cooperation'.

One of the Perth Declaration's key recommendations was to establish an interfaith website.

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We, as leaders of  faith communities, need to develop a more inclusive view of the religious other, to recognise the humanity of the religious other as a starting point. We need to recognise the essential equality of all human beings regardless of religious beliefs. We need to affirm the mutuality and interdependency of all people... We may need even to extend this and recognise that religious other may, just may, have at least some access to the Truth. We may need to accept that the religious others also adopts more or less the same set of essential universal ethical-moral principles we share; that the religious other has feelings of pain and pleasure just like us; that the religious other has similar expectations about their children and family and the preservation of life, property and security; and that the religious other has the same fears and anxieties about the world and the future, just like us.