• Creativity in Cold Lentils
• Recovering Hope
• Truth Is A Two-Way Street
• Our chance to stand in solidarity
• Human Rights: a common meeting place?
• The Heart of God
• Dare to Dream
• Learning to Listen
• Finding meaning in the experience
• Towards An Understanding of Home
• Silence
• Peregrinasaun Haksolok Hamutuk
• Peace
• The Big Show
• Weakness and Strength
• United in Peace
• The Ring
• ACUSA
• People as seeds of hope and change
• Being Grateful
• In the midst of 250,000 people
• UN World Habitat Day
• Praying The Rosary
• I Want To Make A Difference
• How Fragile we are
• The Challenge of email
• Being Socially Responsible
• Thirsting for Knowledge
• The Lord is my Shepherd
• Archived Thoughts of the Week
• An Idea

This year is the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. When it was drafted the Declaration offered much hope and promise in a world still finding its feet after the destruction and devastation of WWII.

One of the amazing things about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is that every country which belongs to the United Nations has signed up to it. Regardless of history, religion or culture, the Declaration stands as a common meeting place for all the nations of the world.

No doubt there are differing ideas about where human rights originate, and what they actually look like on the ground, but they do provide a commonly held starting point for dialogue and action to bring about a better world. In this sense the Declaration offers a valuable ‘meeting place’ for interfaith and intercultural dialogue.

People of faith will find many resonances in the ideals presented in the Declaration. For Catholics, a reading of the Declaration will readily call to mind many of the principles of Catholic Social Teaching, and the Gospel values upon which they’re based.

All of this serves as inspiration for me to promote the university’s focus on community engagement which is directed towards the transformation of persons, communities and cultures so that human dignity is recognized and respected, for all humanity.

• Anthony Steel,
• Institute for Advancing Community Engagement, &
• School of Theology.