14th July – 2 sessions of Interfaith in Action – by Professor Paul Morris and Rev. Uesifili Unasa.

Fo Guang Shan temple is very honor to invite a guest speaker, Professor Paul Morris to host a talk for the youth. He is specialist scholar in the field of contemporary world religions. He flew especially from Wellington and spend half day in Auckland. His topic is “Respect and Magnanimity”.
Prof. Paul Morris mentioned since the creation of the Internet, it has closed the gap between 2 countries. Thus, a diversity of the ethnic group is wider in a country. From a 2011 statistics made in 2011 has confirmed this believe. He also defined the characteristic of both the new world of religion and the traditional world of the religion.
He hope there will be more interfaith conference, so that the prejudice will be reduce and live in a harmonies world.
Reverend Uesifili Unasa conducted the second session; he is the chaplain in the University of Auckland. His topic is “ the Importance of Faiths”.
He talked about his journey as a youth, his religion and faith. He too faced peer pressure about reading his bible in front of his friends. Rev. Unasa acknowledges his faith has helped him during difficult time. He mentioned, “faith is only useful if we engage them to help others”.
Being a chaplain in the university, he helps the youth and offer guidance to them. After the student has graduated, they only went to his chapel for the wedding service. However, he is still pleased to see these youth are successful in their life; believe they have been directed to the right path.