New webinars and online gatherings for 2021
With the Winter months upon us and turning inwards again, we’d like to announce the return of Hearts Online.
Warming a cold environment
The success of our online gatherings and webinars last year, initiated during the first COVID lockdown as a counter to the isolation many people felt, became the springboard for a whole series of Australia-wide online community gatherings, as people realised that, despite it being a ‘cold’ environment, we could still warm the virtual world with sharing, conversation and other heart-warming activities.
For many unaccustomed to socialising in a virtual world, it was an unexpected godsend, one of the only ways that they could connect to others and share in a new way, and with people they might not have met otherwise.
So this year we are returning (though a little later than expected), but with more focus on contemporary topics of current issues, as a way for us to connect more actively and openly with the world we live in today and in the future.
Our first event, as previously announced, concerns the theme of Diversity, Inclusion and Reconciliation. The format will be a panel discussion led by Deb Neale, who is on the management committee of the ASinA
Working towards social renewal
We are launching this panel discussion with two questions:
How do we nurture the life and soul of all human beings?
How do we work for the most vulnerable in our community?
The famous quote from Mahatma Gandhi springs to mind here:
The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.
These questions will lead us into a discussion about how we can contribute to social renewal within the modern Australian context, by exploring what it means to be diverse and inclusive. Then we will look at reconciliation and hear from people in our circle working directly to build relationships between non-Indigenous and First Nation peoples of this land.
If you want to be part of the conversation, contact me to register and join in! If you have questions you would like to put to the panel in advance, contact me or Deborah Neale
The recent ASinA May Newsletter published a draft Statement on Diversity and Inclusion for member feedback. Contact Jane Bradshaw for more information about this statement.
Upcoming Hearts Online webinars
Our next online gathering will be about the responsibility to self and to world. This is the 2021 theme as given by the team at the Goetheanum, for members round the world to take into their daily practice. The theme for 2021 is three-fold:
Be self-responsible/say yes to the world/develop courage to know truth
Jane Bradshaw, our general secretary, will speak to this theme, which she introduced at the Health and Healing seminar just before Easter this year. You can read more about what she had to say here.
Further down the line, there will be a forum for researchers to share their work and another webinar on aged care and palliative care is planned.
For more information or a flyer about the Diversity, Inclusion and Reconciliation webinar on 6 June, please contact me.
Fiona Campbell
On behalf of the ASinA