ADDRESS AT IFTAR DINNER MARKING THE START OF RAMADAN 2016, ST MARY'S CATHEDRAL HOUSE, SYDNEY

Your Eminence the Grand Mufti of Australia and President of the Council of Imams, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohammed; Your Highness Shiek Kamal Moselmane of the Supreme Shiite Islamic Council of Australia; Mr Hafez Kassem, President of the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils; and other leaders or representatives of the Muslim community;

Rabbi Dr Benjamin Elton, Chief Minister of the Great Synagogue of Sydney; Rabbi Jacqueline Ninio of the Emanuel Synagogue; Mr Jeremy Spinak, President of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies; Mr Peter Wertheim, Executive Director of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry; and other leaders or representatives of the Jewish community;
 
Your Eminence Archbishop Paul Saliba of the Antiochian Orthodox Church; Very Rev Fr Kyrillos Zisis, representing His Eminence Archbishop Stylianos of the Greek Orthodox Church; Rev Fr Avedis Hambardzumyan of the Armenian Apostolic Church, representing His Excellency Bishop Najarian; Rev. Frs Yousef Fanous and Shenouda Mansour of the Coptic Orthodox Church; Rev. Mark Lieschke of the Lutheran Church; Ms Wilma Viswanathan of the Uniting Church; and other leaders or representatives of the Christian churches already welcomed;

Msgr Marcelino Youssef, Vicar General of the Maronite Eparchy of Australia, representing His Excellency Bishop Antoine Tarabay; Rev. Fr Gerges Albutros of the Melkite Eparchy of Australia, representing His Excellency Bishop Robert Rabbat; His Lordship Bishop Terry Brady Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney; Very Rev. Don Richardson, Dean of St Mary's Cathedral; Sr Dr Giovanni Farquar RSJ, Executive Director of the Archdiocese of Sydney's Ecumenical and Interfaith Commission; and other leaders within or members of the Catholic Church;

Leaders and representatives of the Hindu, Buddhist and other faith traditions already welcomed and of the interfaith and ecumenical movements;

Mr Stepan Kerkyasharian, Chairman of the New South Wales Anti-discrimination Board; Hon. Scott Farlow MLC, representing the Minister for Multiculturalism; Hon. Sophie Cotsis, Shadow Minister for Multiculturalism; Mr John McCarthy QC, Former Ambassador of Australia to the Holy See; Indigenous leaders already welcomed; and other leaders and representatives of civil society:

It is, once again, a great pleasure to have you all here tonight for this celebration. I give thanks to the Almighty and Merciful God that I have recovered sufficiently from my recent illness to be able to host this dinner tonight and I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for the many messages of prayerful support that I received from the leaders and faithful of various religions. That support, like this annual gathering, are important indications of the freedom of and respect for religion that we have long cherished in Australia and of the mutual respect, indeed affection, that our faith traditions have for one another in this city.

Last year at this dinner I talked about the place of fasting and feasting common to our religious traditions and the virtues thereby exemplified and encouraged. I also said that this coming together of faiths is an example to the world. Another such example is the very recent meeting between Pope Francis and the Grand Imam al-Tayeb of al-Azhar University in Egypt – by all accounts up most cordial and productive encounter. It seems that our example here in Sydney has been noticed and followed!

It is especially important for us to demonstrate our solidarity as people of faith at this time, as there are many issues to concern us. The issue of 'same-sex marriage' will be a hot topic in this year's election and the plebiscite or legislation that may follow it, but what nobody wants to talk about is the wider effect changing the legal definition of marriage will have on religious freedom. The law helps to shape cultural values, and so changing the law in this area will inevitably transform society's understanding of the purpose and meaning of marriage. Overseas, where the legal definition of marriage has been changed in this way, the rights of individuals and communities to live out their faith have been curtailed. People have suffered legal action, have been hounded out of public office, have lost employment or business opportunities, have found their children being taught views contrary to their own faith or have been vilified with cries of 'bigot' and 'homophobe' or have suffered other persecution or ignominy, simply for asserting the view that marriage is between a man and a woman – a view common not only to their own religious tradition but to all major religious traditions, legal systems and serious philosophies until very recently indeed. Sometimes people of faith are inclined to say that the secular definition of marriage is of no concern to them and that we should just “live and let live” in this area, regulating marriage in our own way within our own faith community and letting others do the same. But we should not be naive about this matter: the ability of our own faithful to understand and live marriages successfully depends significantly upon the surrounding marital culture and our own religious liberty is endangered by this push for 'same-sex marriage'. What's more, the enemies of religion will use this as a test case for many other laws and policies thereafter as they seek to remove any whiff of incense from our social customs and institutions.

Another issue about which we should be concerned is the 'Safe Schools Programme' which, under the cover of being an anti-bullying program, openly promotes an extreme position of sexuality as entirely fluid and would seek to impose such notions upon all children from as young as 5 years of age. It requires that school children be taught that sex is about 'the outside body' but gender about how you feel 'inside'; that it's up to each child to choose or change their gender and how they express it; that children should play-act as if they were LGBTI adults; that they should feel free to dress in the school uniform of the opposite sex and use their bathrooms; and so on. The program also denounces examples of “heteronormativity”, such as people asking if a baby is a boy or a girl. If this programme receives continuing federal support, and is made compulsory in all schools, this will yet again undermine religious liberty, the natural rights of parents, and our ability to run faith-based schools according to the reasonable dictates of our faiths.

We could all point to other examples of public policy and ethics which challenge our faith communities at this time. It will be crucial that we work together where we can as people of faith, knowing that unless we hang together we will be hanged separately. Tonight's dinner is an important sign not just of our respect for each other's religious beliefs but of our solidarity and common determination to ensure that faith is given a similar respect in our civil society going forward. Once again, my thanks for your prayers; I ask that they continue as I continue to get better. You are always welcome in my house!