A Muslim, a Hindu, a Sikh, a Christian and a Buddhist were all in a room together discussing different procedures and ceremonies surrounding death.
It sounds like the start of a poor taste joke, but for Gippsland Interfaith standing committee deputy chair Murray Lobley these discussions represent the beginning of understanding and acceptance of people of diverse faiths in the community.
The Gippsland Ethnic Communities’ Council’s Gippsland Interfaith group hosted a Talking Faith seminar recently on the topic of death-related procedures and ceremonies where representatives of different faiths were invited to speak about the traditions of their own faith.
Mr Lobley described the session as a “real success”.
“The more we know about each other, the more we accept each other. That is the whole approach of the Gippsland Ethnic Communities Council and Interfaith obviously looks at the faith aspects, coming together and knowing about our neighbours,” he said.
“This may not have happened 50 years ago where it was predominately European and English-speaking but since then we have had various waves of migration and refugees into the Latrobe Valley.
“The environment of people is changing. The mix that we had 50 years ago of various faith traditions and various people from overseas is [now] totally different.”
Mr Lobley said there was a range of speakers on the evening including a retired Christian pastor, a Traralgon GP with a Muslim faith, a Hindu man from Warragul, a representive of the Sikh community, a funeral home representative who spoke about ecological burials and a Buddhist representative who phoned in to talk through his Powerpoint presentation, with a question and answer time after the presentations.
“We had questions and answers and a lot of people said ‘oh I didn’t know that’,” Mr Lobley said.
“There was a couple of things that I learnt personally.
“Sikhs and Hindus cremate, Muslims bury, Buddhists are like Christians [where] it doesn’t matter.
“The ecological burial is interesting. Dennis brought along the shrouds, you can make your own coffin, but you don’t need to be buried in a coffin, you can be buried in a shroud.”
Mr Lobley said the GECC and Gippsland Interfaith aimed to inform the community of various cultures and faith traditions within the community.
“Down the track this could lead to a whole range of [sessions on] these different faith traditions and various life stages in the life cycle,” he said.
“We talked about the next one we have might be on marriages. And then another on children, if you have a child. In these faith traditions – what does it mean?”.
For information about Gippsland Interfaith or future Talking Faith sessions, visit gippslandethniccom
munitiescouncil.websyte.com.au.
