A multi-faith service to honour asylum seekers who have died seeking asylum in Australia will take place on Sunday July 1 at the Pilgrim Church at 4pm.
The service will lament the tragic death of approximately 90 asylum seekers who died last week when their boat capsized near Christmas Island.
It will also remember the lives and hopes of many other asylum seekers, who have died tragically seeking asylum in Australia. One estimate puts this number at nearly 1000 since 1998.*
The service has been developed by an informal multi-faith group which has included representation from the Christian, Jewish , Baha’i and Muslim faiths.
The group has been convened by Rabbi Shoshana Kaminsky of the Beit Shalom Synagogue in Hackney.
Rabbi Kaminsky says this will be an opportunity for members of the Adelaide community to join in prayers and remembrance.
Rabbi Kaminsky says: “We invite the people of Adelaide to put aside the controversy over treatment of asylum seekers and join us in grieving those lost lives.”
“It is a moment for those of any faith and no faith to join together and remember and lament those people whose hopes for an escape from persecution and a better life for them and their children have been so sadly cut off.”
What: A Multi-faith Service of Lament: Honouring those who have lost their lives seeking asylum in Australia
When: Sunday, July 1 at 4.00pm
Where: Pilgrim Church, 12 Flinders Street, Adelaide
Media Contact: Rabbi Shoshana Kaminsky 8362 8281 (mob) 0435 050 415
*While the exact number of asylum seekers who have drowned seeking asylum is unknown, one estimate places that number at 547 confirmed deaths from December 1998 to December 2011, with approximately 350 probable drowned. With the estimated 90 people lost recently, it brings the number to almost 1000 people since 1998.
*Marg Hutton, sievx.com Updated: 23 April 2012
URL: http://sievx.com/articles/background/DrowningsTable.pdf
Article from Anglican Diocese of Adelaide