Fo Guang Shan Joins “Commemoration Service for Mother Teresa”

Many representatives from various religious and social organisations joined the “Commemoration Service for Mother Teresa” on 22nd November. VIPs included representative from the Sisterhood of Calcutta’s Auckland branch, Auckland Biship Patrick Dunn, Hindu representative Ravi Thaper, ex Labour Party Leader Phil Goff, Venerable Abbess Manshin, BLIA North Island President Dolly Tsai, BLIA Working Young Adults Division Leader Stephen Xu and Auckland Inspector Rakesh Naidoo.

First Mother Teresa’s fellow sisters shared her touching memoirs of the Saint. Then they expressed their own actions in Auckland to follow the Mother’s spirit on helping the poor, homeless and sick, which were not only in material but also in spiritual salvation. They would like contribute to the peace and love toward society just like Mother Teresa back in the days.

This was followed by Biship Dunn’s speech about how science habitually categorises material object and phenomena to look at the world, but religion looks at material and phenomena as a whole to explain their significance. Most importantly is that religion looks at the meaning of life, which is a central philosophical questions for thousands of years encompassing all ethnicity and cultures. The Biship was grateful that so many different religious and culture groups can gather together to share, investigate and elevate the meaning of life.

Ethnic Affairs Minister the Honourable Pesaeta Sam Lotu-Liga expressed that exchange between different religion, culture and language can allow everyone to treat each other with equality and tolerance. This will achieve the goal of “love and peace”, as wished by the late Mother Teresa.