By 96five Thursday 30 May 2024Station NewsReading Time: 2 minutes
This year’s annual Lord Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast saw the Brisbane faith community gather together, with the theme of unity in focus.
Host, Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner reminded those gathered in the City Hall Auditorium that faith has an important role to play in our community, despite some in society questioning that.
“Have we miraculously solved all of the problems of our society,” the Lord Mayor asked in his opening remarks.
“There’s an increasing number of people across the community who question the role of our churches. And there is a view among some of these people that churches are outdated and irrelevant. They are a legacy of the past and as a society we are somehow now more enlightened.”
The MC’s for this year’s breakfast were 96five’s Steff Willis and Tim Bain, pictured with the Lord Mayor. Image: Lynne Beckitt.
“The so called enlightenment of the human condition hasn’t eliminated hatred, hasn’t eliminated war, hasn’t eliminated discrimination, it hasn’t eliminated violence either between nations or even in the home in a domestic situation.
“We all have basic needs. We have a need for air, for water, for food, for shelter, but there’s a fundamental need for something else too.
“Because we are not just physical beings. We’re spiritual beings. And so we have a fundamental need for air, water, shelter, food, but we have a need for love and hope as well.
“And that’s why faith is relevant today.”
This year’s keynote address came from Christine Castley, CEO of Multicultural Australia, who reminded those gathered that unity can build a better city, no matter our cultural background.
“As we speak about building a better Brisbane based on unity, we need to understand that this can only come from the individual and shared experiences of the people who exist in this place and who inhabit its private and public spaces.
“We can only achieve unity if we get the settings right to empower, enable and encourage people to interact with each other in authentic, safe, sometimes incidental and sometimes deliberate ways.”
Christine Castley is the CEO of Multicultural Australia, and came to Australia from Malaysia aged 15. Image: Justin Rouillon.
“What happens when we think about building our communities around places and our places around communities? My view is that we become a much better and kinder community.
“By focusing on community participation, by engaging in empathy driven design and planning, we create quality public and private spaces that enhance people’s health, happiness and well being.”
You can listen to all the prayers and speeches from the 2024 Lord Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast in the audio player below.