Police Forum for Faith Leaders
On Wednesday, March 4 over 100 faith leaders attended a Terrorism Protection Unit Safe Places Forum for Places of Worship
On Wednesday, March 4 over 100 faith leaders attended a Terrorism Protection Unit Safe Places Forum for Places of Worship, run by the NSW Police Force at Sydney’s International Convention Centre at Darling Harbour.
This was the latest in a series of these which has evolved over the past two years. The aim of the day was to inform faith leaders to better keep their people safe from hostile actors; something now much more clearly comprehensible in the wake of the Bondi attack during Hanukkah celebrations last year.
Sessions were led by representatives from various police groups including the Terrorism Protections Unit and Communications.
The Premier’s Department brought an update on the work done in response to the Bondi Terrorist attack last year and Multicultural NSW presented on the work done to bring various religious and cultural groups together since then.
This provided a segue into the work of the Shepherd Project, which was run by our Synod with the Safe Places for Faith Communities Grant released by the State Government through Multicultural NSW. I was able to give an overview of how this had come about and the value of the materials to faith groups in planning to respond to violent attacks on their houses of worship. See the Insights story on this, and the DRCN chaplaincy response following the Bondi attack.
A key theme in this forum was vigilance and equipping welcomers and congregation members to be welcoming and open, yet awake to the possibility of hostility within a worship service. This was brought home by a case study from a Sydney church which had acted swiftly to identify a threat and call police to assist before harm came to anyone.
Other forums will be hosted by the NSW Police Force throughout the year with the next suggested for mid-May. If you are interested in more information contact Stephen Robinson at stephenr@nswact.uca.org.au.
More Information
Helpful information was distributed by the Police after the event. This included posters in five different languages relating to hate crime reporting and a poster for faith leaders regarding contacting the police in the event of a terrorist incident or armed attack.
You can download them via the following links: