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God’s Gamble with Creation and the Greening of our Theologies

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The Australian Council of Christians and Jews invites you to a Zoom conference on ‘God’s Gamble with Creation and the Greening of our Theologies’, this Sunday (July 5) at 3pm (AEST).  The conference will immediately follow the launch of the latest edition of CCJVIC’s ‘Gesher’ journal, which focuses on the ecological turn in our theologies, at 2.30pm.  You can register for both events with an email to: ccjvic@bigpond.net.au

The speakers at the ACCJ conference will be Rabbi Fred Morgan and Dr Emmanuel Nathan.  Rabbi Morgan will highlight the threats to creation arising from human “domination” vs human “custodianship” of the created world – reflective of the stories of Creation in the Book of Genesis. The “gamble” has to do with God’s allowing humanity the freedom to understand creation in our own ways. It focuses attention on the thin line between manipulation and protection of nature.

Dr Nathan’s will reflect on five years of Pope Francis’ Encyclical Letter Laudato Si and bring that into conversation with the greening of theology.

Rabbi Fred Morgan studied at Columbia University, New York, and Cambridge University, England, specialising in the religions of India. He was a lecturer in Religious Studies at Bristol University, England, for six years before entering the Leo Baeck College in London to train for the rabbinate; during this time he spent a year at Pardes Institute in Jerusalem.  Ordained in 1984, Rabbi Morgan served North West Surrey Synagogue in the UK for 13 years before being appointed Senior Rabbi to Temple Beth Israel (TBI), Melbourne. He retired from TBI in September 2013 and subsequently held the posts  of Professorial Fellow, Faculty of Theology and Philosophy, Australian Catholic University, researching Judaism and interfaith dialogue, and Movement Rabbi, Union for Progressive Judaism in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. He is married to Sue.  They have three children and three grandchildren.

Dr Nathan is a Senior Lecturer in Biblical Studies and Comparative Theology based on the Strathfield campus of the Australian Catholic University in Sydney and will shortly be taking up an active role in the recently announced Centre for the Studies of the Second Vatican Council of the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy. He is involved in interfaith and ecumenical dialogue, most notably the Australian Council of Christians and Jews (ACCJ), the Sydney Archdiocese Commission for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations (ACEIR), and the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC).