On Monday night 60 students from six schools across Melbourne’s eastern region gathered at Luther College for the Building Bridges interfaith schools program. Schools included Avila College, Mt Scopus College and Donvale Christian School.
The program, which Luther has been involved with for 11 years, promotes mutual understanding and respect and ethical behaviour across our cultural and religious diversities, to develop competent global leaders for the 21st century.
Students in Year 10 and 11 participate voluntarily, and meet after school throughout terms 2 and 3. Each school takes a turn at hosting a session. The program culminates in a presentation evening which involves schools from across all three Melbourne regions of Building Bridges.
Monday night’s session saw our students give a presentation about the history and current day information of the College, information about Martin Luther and the development of the Lutheran Church in Australia. Students and staff shared a (covid safe) meal and broke into small groups to ‘gather materials for the bridge’. The focus was to recognise the difference between sharing our personal experiences and sharing information, opinions, abstract concepts or beliefs; and why sharing our personal experiences is emphasised in this program, and to begin to share some of these experiences with each other.
Throughout the program students engage in interactive activities on trust building, learning the faith practices of the host school and learn from and engage with each other’s personal experiences of life and faith.
