Focus returns to city’s push for peace and harmony

COVID-19 paused Toowoomba’s push to become a model city of peace and harmony. Now, a large conference hopes to reignite that passion.

Gayle Thomas, David Tutty, Lakshmi Gandu and Fatima Aria ahead of the Peace and youth conferences.

The campaign to make Toowoomba a model city for peace and harmony, like many other community initiatives, was thrown a curve-ball because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, a number of community groups and organisations will come together this week for the National Interfaith Peace Conference.

Catholic Central Justice Commission executive officer David Tutty said the theme for the 2020 event was Caring for the Earth, Caring for each other.

“One of the difficult things with COVID was in some ways our horizons and our ability to see beyond ourselves or our immediate community got less,” he said.

“People worried about themselves, their co-workers, their immediate family, whether they’re going to keep their job.

“Part of this interfaith peace conference is to help people see that bigger horizon again.

“Maybe it’s been lost over a number of months for some people, but the hope is that, you know, we see a bigger picture. And we see how we fit into that bigger picture.”

There will be a number of discussions at the conference, which will be led by leaders of various faiths across Toowoomba.

The conference, which will be held at St Patrick’s Cathedral on Friday and Saturday, is organised by the Toowoomba Interfaith Working Group and the Pure Land Learning Centre, with support from the Goodwill Committee Toowoomba.

A youth conference will also run at the same time.

Organiser Fatima Aria said the youth conference was all about building confidence in young people, after a year where confidence had been damaged because of the pandemic.

“We have professional speakers and educated people who can give some tips and help young people gain some more confidence in themselves, in their public speaking, and how they present themselves in the community,” Miss Aria said.

“When young people have more confidence, they will be more engaged in the community.”

The youth conference will run from 9am to noon on Saturday.

To get involved with the Peace conference visit https://bit.ly/2CTm3pz.

To get involved with the youth conference visit https://bit.ly/34qMILj.