Experiences Shared In BLIA AGM Preparatory Meeting

On 3rd November, BLIA South Island held a preparatory meeting for their 2009 Annual General Meeting. The 20 people who attended included BLIA South Island Advisor Mr. John Lai, Vice-president Mei-Hua Chen, Directors Gina Chen, Shuangqi Li and Guihua Yang and other committee members, together with Venerable Juexi and Venerable Miaoyu.

During the meeting, jobs were divided into seven categories, namely administration, registration, setup and sound system, news and photography, ceremony and MC, refreshments and cleanup groups’. The BLIA members displayed considerable commitment to the preparatory work as they discussed relevant issues.

After the meeting, Guiding Reverend Venerable Juexi invited Ms. Seeshen Lee to share her experiences of the 5th Interfaith Dialogue in Perth. First of all, Ms. Lee expressed her gratitude for the guidance and recommendations of Venerable Abbess Manshin and Hon. Pansy Wong. Ms. Lee said that during the Dialogue, she could see that the leaders and core members of each and every religion were fully dedicated in promoting their faith’s religious ideas and were sacrificing themselves in the process of doing so.

She said that represent the For Guang Shan to attend the first international religious meeting in New Zealand would like to thank the abbot of For Guang Shan Mitsunobu Master and New Zealand Minister for Ethnic Affairs Hon Pansy Wong promotion and guidance. She noted that she saw the core of every religion dedicated cadres and members of sacrifice and dedication to success and promotion of religious ideas.

More importantly, religious groups had the heart to send their young members to participate in the Dialogue; and those elders who have a repository of experience, knowledge and wisdom were very gentle and patient with the young participants as they offered them valuable guidance. The elders also informed the fresh blood with information about the current problems and situations surrounding the faiths.

After listening to Ms. Lee’s inspiring sharing, everyone present were moved and gave a warm round of applause. At the end, Venerable Juexi encouraged everyone to work together to create new history for Buddhism in Christchurch, and promote its acceptance among locals.