Events 2025

ACCJ Conference, Melbourne
Sunday-Tuesday 2-4 February 2025

ACCJ Media Statement
Schedule of Events

The Australian Council of Christians and Jews (ACCJ) believes there is a role for dialogue and is inviting interested Australians to meet in Melbourne in February.

To register your attendance, please click on the Humanitix link below.

Register Attendance

2024 Annual General Meeting
Sunday 16 February 2025

Speaker
The Right Reverend Hans Christiansen
Assistant Bishop of Perth
Topic
Building Bridges in a Polarised World:
Interfaith Dialogue in Schools
Venue
Alexandra Hall, 20 Monument Street, Mosman Park

Transcript
THE RIGHT REVEREND HANS CHRISTIANSEN BA Th (Copenhagen), GradDipSpiritualDir (MCD), GradDipEd (Sec) ACU

Hans is an Assistant Bishop in the Anglican Diocese of Perth.  He is a Spiritual Director and was a Secondary School Teacher of Philosophy and Religious Studies. He completed a Bachelor of Theology from Copenhagen University, Denmark, before moving to Melbourne in 2004,. In Melbourne he completed a Graduate Diploma of Spiritual Direction and a Graduate Diploma in Secondary Education. He was ordained deacon and priest in the Anglican Church in 2006 and was consecrated Bishop in February 2024.

Hans served as the Senior Chaplain at Melbourne Grammar School from 2013-2023 where he was a member of the Senior School Executive. Prior to that, he was the founding Chaplain and Religious Education Coordinator at Balcombe Grammar School. He served as Curate and Associate Priest in the Parish of Rye and Sorrento and as Honorary Associate Priest in the Parish of St Peter’s Eastern Hill. He is the co-founder and former President of the Mornington Peninsula Interfaith Network. Hans served as a Board member of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim Association and was a member of the Melbourne Diocese’s Social Responsibilities Committee. Until recently, he was the Chaplains’ representative on the Anglican Schools Australia Management Committee.

Hans has a keen interest in sharing the Christian faith with a broad audience. He is passionate about education, theology and society. Hans is an oblate in the Camaldolese Benedictine Order. He has a long-standing interest in contemplative spirituality, pilgrimage walking, First Nations People and culture, interfaith dialogue and social and environmental justice.

Hans was born in Denmark. He is married to Ruth, and they have two adult children, one of whom lives in Denmark. Hans enjoys spending time in nature, travelling, music, literature, gardening, bike riding and walking.

*Photos courtesy of Sas Saddick

Evening Worship with the Winthrop Singers
Thursday 15 May

The evening worship was held at St Andrew’s Church and led by Revd Peter Manuel, Rector, Anglican Parish of Subiaco. The Liturgy for the occasion acknowledged the continuity between Jewish and Christian worship and was chosen to ensure its appropriateness for those of either faith. It featured sacred choral works – including some from the Jewish tradition – sung by the Winthrop Singers, directed by Ann Clarke.

At the conclusion of the service, the choir and congregation enjoyed a convivial supper, followed by a ‘fireside chat’ between Reverend Peter Manuel and Dr Sr Margaret Scharf, CCJWA Committee Member and Director of the Dominican Institute for Spirituality, pictured above.

Dr Sr Margaret Scharf also serves on the Council of Churches Western Australia; the Australian Catholic Council for Christian Unity and Religious Relations with Jews; and the Leadership Team for the Dominican Sisters of Western Australia. Dr Sr Scharf also volunteers for the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry in Perth.

Seminar
Anti-Judaism: Christianity's Enduring Sin
Tuesday 10 June

An address outlining the history and consequences of Christianity’s antagonism toward Judaism over two millenia.

Speaker
Professor Rowan Strong DD FRHistS
Chair CCJWA

Transcript
Professor Rowan Strong is Emeritus Professor of Church History, Murdoch University, and Professor Emeritus of Church History, The University of Divinity.  He has degrees in History and Theology in New Zealand (BA Victoria University of Wellington; LTh Joint Board of Theological Studies, New Zealand), and in Church History from Australia and Scotland (MTheol Melbourne College of Divinity; PhD University of Edinburgh; DD University of Edinburgh. His earlier research was concerned with the Oxford Movement in Anglicanism, and the history of Christianity in Industrial Britain resulting in three books – Alexander Penrose Forbes: The First Tractarian Bishop (Oxford, 1995); Episcopalianism in Nineteenth-Century Scotland: Religious Responses to a Modernizing Society (Oxford, 2002); with Carol Herringer (eds.) Edward Bouverie Pusey and the Oxford Movement (2012) His work over the past decade has been concerned with the interaction between British imperialism and Christianity. As well as numerous articles and book chapters on colonial Australia, New Zealand, and metropolitan Britain, his principal monographs are Anglicanism and the British Empire (Oxford, 2007) and Victorian Christianity and Emigrant Voyages to British Colonies c.1840-c.914 (Oxford, 2017). Inter-denominational history has also figured in his book Chaplains of the Royal Australian Navy, 1912 to the Vietnam War (2012). He was General Editor of The Oxford History of Anglicanism (5 vols. 2017-8) and editor of vol. 3 of that series on the nineteenth century. His forthcoming book of essays to be published by the Dutch publisher Brill is Anglicanism, Missions, and Empire. Professor Strong has been an Anglican priest for over forty years and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.