MEDIA RELEASE

A church that won't be silenced!

New Pentecost Forum 2005

Date: 14/4/2005

Australia and the Asia Pacific is about to embrace one of the biggest coordinated gatherings of Christian social justice groups in recent memory. Gathering around the theme of 'New Pentecost' in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Auckland and Bangkok, the meetings will climax with a one day event and evening public lecture in Sydney titled "A Church that Won't be Silenced!" on Pentecost Sunday, 15 May 2005.

The keynote speaker for this gathering will be Francisco ('Chico') Whitaker, a leading social activist and thinker from Brazil and a key founder of the World Social Forum - a civil society meeting that attracts 150,000 participants annually. Mr Whitaker has worked with Bishop Helder Camara and Paulo Freire and is now a member of the Executive Secretariat of the Brazilian Catholic Bishops' Justice and Peace Commission.

Respondents will include Phil Glendenning, director of the Edmund Rice Centre, Rev. Dr. Dorothy McRae McMahon, retired Uniting Church Minister, and Fr. Michael Whelan, director of the Aquinas Academy. Julie Morgan from the Franciscan Justice and Peace will facilitate.

The forums are part of a pilot project to promote diversity and create an enduring space for church groups to support one another so that all might participate more actively in the political life.

Sponsors of New Pentecost include the Australian Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs (ACMICA), Australian Catholic University (ACU), Edmund Rice Centre, Pax Christi (NSW, Qld, NZ), Franciscan Justice and Peace Office, Dominican Sisters of Eastern Australia, Young Christian Workers, Cardijn Lay Community (Thailand), and Young People for Development (YPD).

Full details and registration call the New Pentecost Forum secretariat care of Newtown Parish on +61 2 95573197 or visit: http://www.newpentecost.com.

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