Exchanging Ideas Across Religions

Reverend Dr Lord Leslie Griffiths of England's Wesley Church was invited by Christchurch's interfaith to Christchurch's St Mark's Church on the 3rdof July to give a talk entitled 'The History and Earthquake of Haiti'. Several representatives from religious bodies within Christchurch's interfaith organisation attended the event, including Fo Guang Shan (FGS) South Island temple supervisor Venerable Jue Xi, South Island Vice President Louisa Kuo, Secretary James Low and 7 other Buddha’s Light’s International Association (BLIA) south island representatives, plus those too from other religious groups making up a total of about 60 attendees.

Dr Leslie Griffiths had just attended the '2014 New Zealand National Interfaith forum' the week before in Dunedin, chatting and acquainting with several BLIA members at that time. So it was most certainly a pleasure again to see him this time around, and it was nice too of him to specially thank the attending BLIA members for coming to support his talk.

To set the scene, Lord Griffiths first gave a vivid account on the history of Haiti's long and bitter road to independence in order to be more appreciative and understanding of Haiti's present situation. The Christchurch audience listened attentively throughout, and was especially moved to tears when he recounted the 2010 Haiti earthquake in which more than 300,000 Haitians lost their lives to the devastating natural disaster.

During the Q&A session, the audience asked Lord Griffiths some questions, in which one of them was: “How did the international community respond in aid to this earthquake, and what are some of the lessons that we can learn from this disaster?”. A BLIA member also asked: “To what extent can faith or belief be of positive use in such times of disaster?”. Lord Griffiths later remarked that: “By adhering to a humble attitude, being diligent to one's self, and enhancing our relationships with others, these mindsets can all be positive beliefs that we should have and practice in our daily lives.

BLIA members expressed their thanks to Lord Griffiths for his outstanding talk. Afterwards, FGS members also used the free time as an opportunity to share and interact with other religious group members whom had attended that day's interfaith talk, further understanding and strengthening the bond between people across different religions.