Blessing in the Presence of Religious and Police Force

Fo Guang Shan (FGS) South Island New Zealand organised a blessing ceremony for Christchurch on November at 4:30pm. We are honoured to have the following VIPs attending the ceremony: FGS New Zealand Venerable Abbess Manshin, BLIA South Island President See Shen Lee. BLIA North and South Island Advisors Peter Young, John Lai, Sandy Liao, New Zealand police representative Inspector Rakesh Naidoo, Inspector Virginia Le Bas, Sergeant John Baines, Christchurch City councilor Helen Broughton representative of Riccarton, Roman Catholic representative Sister Bertha, Jewish representative Ina de Paauw and Bahai Joanne Roberts. Also present were BLIA members and our fellow devotees. Abbess led the guests to their seats and chant the Darani Mantra, reading Venerable Master Hsinh Yun’s “Prayer for the Society”.

Abbess told the people present that Venerable Most Venerable Hsing Ting was not able to make it because of flight delay, but he told Abbess to express his gratitude for people’s presence and his blessing to them. Venerable Abbess gave a meaningful speech after that and thanked New Zealand police representatives and religious representatives for their presence as well.

After that, the religious representatives and police representatives gave their speech as well. The religious representatives prayed for the people in Christchurch and wished them hope in the future. Police representative Inspector Rakesh Naidoo thanked FGS in his speech, saying that they appreciated the help and relief service provided by FGS during the earthquake. City Councilor Helen Broughton gave a short speech after that.

The ceremony ended in peace. The devotees express their wishes for a speedy reopening of FGS because they couldn’t wait to get close to Buddhism and the Venerable.