okay good afternoon or good morning whenever you're watching this um welcome to the studies of religion master class this afternoon I'm presenting on a religion in Australia 1945 to the present and particularly looking at religious dialogue in multi-faith Australia so I hope everybody's had a great day and um there are lots of slides there's lots of information if you're watching this on a recording you can pause it and try some of the things that I've asked you to do but we'll kick off with an acknowledgment of country so this afternoon we acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land in which we meet the wongo people of the Euro Nation we acknowledge that this land was has been and always will be Aboriginal land we pay respect to the world's oldest continuously living culture and recognize their beliefs their history and their deep connection to the land on this land they taught their children their beliefs knowledge and culture and as stewards of this land we continue to honor the Deep history of First Nations education this land has seen and may we walk in reconciliation together so studies of religion well the syllabus it has lots of pieces of information in it when you read it this is two parts that I think are pertinent to what we're looking at this afternoon so you might just take a minute to read through that yourself so you can see what our focus is on and hone in on some of the important things that we're looking at this afternoon and the final point there that studies of religion emphasizes the development of skills of analysis independent research collaboration and effective communication a part about independent research is really important so we're not here to spoon feed you and that's not what I'm going to do this afternoon but hopefully just to get your mind ticking over to think what have you got to look at to make sure that you can make the best of your exam papers on the day the focus of the study then of religious expression in Australia is Multicultural and multi-faith Society since 1945. so if you've studied in the two unit program you would know from your year 11 course the way things were up to 1945 that's just good background knowledge but for one unit Sor and for the demands of the syllabus for your trial and for your HSC it is definitely post 1945 that you need to write about so you learn about religious dialogue in terms of ecumenical movements within Christianity and Interfaith dialogue and the relationship between Aboriginal spiritualities and religious traditions in the process of reconciliation so I emphasize the word process in that it's ongoing and it's something that was started but was still not finished so the the National Council of churches and the New South Wales ecumenical council they are important to have a knowledge about now you don't have to know every single thing about them but you need to be able to write enough to convince the market that you understand what impact they have had so just a bit of knowledge on that is helpful but the most important thing is to actually have an understanding of what ecumenical means and what Interfaith means so that you're not getting the too confused so therefore I would encourage you strongly to listen to this podcast not now but in your own time and it unpacks what is a communism and what is Interfaith dialogue you should make some notes as you listen because it's imperative to know the difference between the two concepts or you could be quite confused in what you write in your responses so it's really ensure that you can provide those definitions so the marker knows really that you know what you're talking about and listening to that podcast it's 20 minutes it's a nice easy podcast to listen to it might be just the thing you need to ensure that you are immersing yourself in ecumenism and Interfaith dialogue in the right way so some examples It's always important to be able to give examples of organizations to include these in your response now the ones that I've got on your screen there that you can see are just some of them they're not all of them but they're the main ones the key ones so if you're going to write about the National Council of churches in Australia you have to write that out first and then in Brackets you can put NCCA so that the marker knows what you're talking about and the same with the Australian National dialogue of Christians Muslims and Jews you can write it out the first time and then write the abbreviation for that in Brackets the same with Australian Partnership of religious organizations that's for appro so just remember the first time you mention it in your response to write it out in full and then use it the um abbreviations just some images on your screen sometimes from multiple choice question images can be used so just keep that in mind uh and you might even you know take notice of what is in the images to help you in unpacking what echumenism is so for that one in the middle of your screen you can see there's the cross there helping you to know that it's all about Christianity obvious but just thought I'd point it out some evidence to support your understanding so it's imperative that you write about an initial initiate sorry an initiative or an event that might have happened and try and keep it recent so don't go back to the Dark Ages uh just keep things in the last sort of two years is a good option um unless you're writings about something that was pertinent to uh say the 1977 when the uniting church was formed or something like that that's going back quite a while but try and keep things current in your examples so they're just a couple that you can see on your screen and what I'd like you to do when you're watching this in your own time is find some initiatives that you're familiar with that you're interested in going back to that idea that studies of religion is all about your own independent research and understanding and yes I could give you some but I feel it's better to not spoon feed you and hope that you bother because it is your HSC to find some of these yourself and you might be able to make a really good connection with that so moving to some multiple choice questions um throughout over the last decade uh there's just some questions that I picked out that relate to this part of the syllabus so in that first question there what should which church can be considered to have been formed as a consequence of The ecumenical movement in Australia the answer is sitting there right in front of you but before you give the answer I think it's sometimes when you do these questions a good technique a good tool can be to use the question to help you study so what do I mean by that is look at some of the parts of the question and even the answers the responses are there and then think what do I know about the things that are being indicated in the response so the questions asking about The ecumenical movement in Australia what do I know about that so I I think and I write down and I make some points and there's four points that I've made down there that connect with the question why would I bother doing that or why would I ask you to do that because this question was already asked in 2012. it's not going to be asked exactly like this again they might ask you something similar and if you've done a little bit of research and jogged your memory about some of the things relating to this question then some of that information could be asked in in the 2023 HSC and you'll be thinking oh yes I remember researching that I remember having a look about that at what was the information connected to the ecumenical movement rather than than just oh D's the answer so take the time when you look through some of these questions to think well what else can that I probe from that question to help me in my learning here's uh question seven from 2012. in which of the following do both examples refer to ecumenical developments in Australia so this was in the same year that there was a two questions devoted to The ecumenical development so when you go through those answers again some of the things that might be standing out to you are the white Australia policy so you might write down well when was that abolished or what was the white Australia policy in your learning then the next one B talks about the uh the National Council of churches in Australia so you might think all right well what are some of the member churches that could be a question and then it talks about appro and then it talks about the World Council of churches in Canberra so you might think what are the things I might need to know about any of these organizations events or initiatives that they're talking about and put some points so as you go through the questions write down is there any additional notes or information that could help me in my learning so what is the WCC Who's involved what do they stand for what are they wanting to do what are they trying to achieve similarly what is the the National Council of churches well can you identify the member churches I do remember there was a question about that once what is the function of the NCCA uh the white Australia policy when was that why why what was it to begin with and what and when was it abolished and then what happened as a result of that so it's always um prompting you to think make links make connections that's what studies of religion is about so there was the answer there b we could have just clicked on what's the answer but not really delved into what uh other pieces of the puzzle that are within that question within the a b c d responses to help us with our learning so there's a resource therefore you use and it's quite rich question six from 2013 which of the following best explains best explains okay why religious Traditions are in engaged in Aboriginal reconciliation so you have to have an understanding of what these things are whether a b c d well we could just click on the answer but instead of doing that we could go through and say well why are some of these answers that they've given us why they load of rubbish what let's challenge some of the options that they've provided and in doing so you make connections you make links and it prompts you to further understand the topic that you are studying so I'll just go back that was the question which of the following best explains why religious Traditions are engaged in Aboriginal reconciliation so what do we know about ecumenical dialogue who is ecumenical dialogue with that be the best answer see they encourage conversion to their own tradition well if you have a good understanding of ecumenism you know it's not about converting anyone to anything so you have your definitions and you'll know that that's not the right answer D they decide to incorporate Aboriginal symbolism into their own tradition how is this even a possible thing and is it uh something that is a load of rubbish so to speak or how can we challenge that in some way and the correct answer for is a b that they hope to recognize injustices of the past so that it doesn't happen again which of the following is an important role of interfaith dialogue so again if you know your definitions of what Interfaith dialogue is so again go back and spend that 20 minutes on the ra share podcast that I linked earlier in a slide and you can think about well what is it doing what is the job of interfaith dialogue unpack any notes that you might linking with any of those statements it's a good thing even with d there to think all right well D is not the answer but what is that switching religions again what is that and then you're going to revise denominational switching because you never know in two in 2023 that might be a question that you need to have a good understanding of in multiple choice or in the five marker so whilst you're going through uh answering these simple multiple choice questions that can be a really quick thing you can extend your learning and extend and dig a little bit deeper and use it as a tool to understand a whole lot of things that Encompass the syllabus which of the following is a key focus of the New South Wales ecumenical council promote unification to express a common Christian voice on issues of concern in society to encourage more Christian adherence to undertake active roles in an Australian political life to provide a common voice for different religious traditions on Refugee and Asylum Seeker issues so when you look at these answers here the obvious uh load of rubbish I would say is C okay about the Australian political life we know that it's not about promoting unification among different religious Traditions that's not what ecumenism is about so then it brings us to B and D to express a common Christian voice on issues of concern in society so we know that the um one of the roles of ecumenism is to voice and and be an advocate for for people who are oppressed for example so we might go to those answers there and we can see that b is the best answer out of those there 2015 the main reason why Interfaith dialogue is important is that it provides what a forum for the discussion of social justice issues a basis for the future merger of religious Traditions a structural basis for the development of secularism funding to support the work of the World Council of churches so again you might think well I'll rule out the ones that I know it's not but it's a great opportunity to look at this question to think well hang on what is secularism what is that again I need to remind myself I might need to go back and study that because I'm not 100 sure of what that is so use these questions as I said to prompt your understanding of all key elements okay and there's the answer there a I hope you're doing well so far um 2015 question 10. what would supporters of ecumenism be likely to reject so here you know everybody has an understanding of the word to reject you know to get rid of to not support so sectarianism if you don't know what that is then you're going to be challenged to find what is the correct answer to this sometimes a lot some people get sectarianism and secularization confused so it's important to have an understanding of these term this terminology um sectarianism reconciliation Interfaith dialogue or denominational switching what would support us of ecumenism be likely to reject so when you look at that answer if you know what sectarianism is then you know that that is the correct answer communication between which of the following is an example of interfaith dialogue now so again just stop and think Interfaith dialogue and I'm sure you will understand the definitions how powerful they are is between different Faith Traditions so when we go through our list here anglicans and lutherans they're both Christians so that's not Interfaith dialogue Pentecostal and Baptist again both falling under the Christian umbrella so not ecumenism sorry not interfac dialogue and then we've got the Buddhists and Salvation Army so that's sounding like that's the answer the Orthodox and Presbyterian are both Christians so that is ecumenical so our answer is C which is correct which of the following denominations was founded in Australia so again a little bit of History here um was founded in Australia so it was it began here it was established here in this country so if you know your work you know that the uniting church was a combination of three different Christian churches combining together that means it was founded here in this country so it is definitely uh the United Church your answer is d oh for this one here there's a bit of information that's provided so use the following to answer two questions for this one here so advice is to take your time because there's a lot of information that is coming into this uh panel that's at the top there in which year is it most likely that this sign would have been seen outside of a uniting church so there's four answers to choose from and three of them are incorrect there's only one right answer and we know from the previous question and what we've spoken about the uniting church was established in 1977 so therefore the correct answer is d uh according to the sign then which of the following occurs at this church what actually takes place in this church so go back and read the sign and it says the Bible talks to you on Wednesdays sounds like a good course the inter-denominational praise it's on the first Tuesday of the month Mission Outreach is on Thursday and they have a reverend Susan Jones so even in looking at that that sign there start to think about well what type of church is this what sort of Christian Church is does this belong to and and going back to answering our question what is it on the sign there that it's telling us do they have secular praying do they have a multi-faith worship do they have Interfaith dialogue do they have ecumenical activity the correct answer is both for both of these is D there's ecumenical activity going on because there's a few things happening in that sign I remember this well 2018 a lot of people were confused by this card it was is a sort of an unusual question for studies of religion um to have as as first question and multiple choice so which of the following is reflected in this Christmas card again you need to have an understanding of what these definitions are of each of these things here so seasons greetings there's nothing um that is across on it to say Christmas and in terms of the image reconciliation there's nothing there linked to the indigenous Interfaith dialogue there's nothing there about different religious Traditions so that we know that the answer is secularization in that Christmas card and B is the correct answer question 6 the most significant ecumenical event in Australia's history and so many times this question must be coming up I feel like I've been talking about it all afternoon but we know that it is a as the formation of the United Church but it is a good opportunity to go through and have a look well what was the abolition of the white Australia policy again when was it check your facts 1972 the creation of the Australian Council of Christians and Jews all right this is an opportunity for me to go online and have a look what was the uh what is the best Council about what do they do and then there's another opportunity for me to have a look about Carr c-a-r the Council of Aboriginal reconciliation because you might be able to use any of these in a five marker response so take the time to do a little bit of your own independent research investigation and use it to your advantage 2019 uh what do ecumenism and Interfaith dialogue have in common and from your answers there some of them make you chuckle have a look at what they've got to say and again you could think for this one well what is a load of rubbish uh or what is what is actually key to what they're trying to do and they both value religious Harmony while respecting religious diversity they're not into unifying unification they're not up for promoting women um and they both aim at rationalizing the use of buildings for shared worship so as you go through those answers you'll see what's wrong with them communication between which of the following is an example of ecumenical dialogue so we have a look here again Buddhists oops hang on sorry Buddhists and Hindus are from two different Faith Traditions so that's not ecumenical baptism Presbyterians would be our answer Catholics and Orthodox Jews two different Faith Traditions there Muslims and Salvation Army two different Faith Traditions there so we know that the answer is B correct okay this one here um is quite a challenge so 2020 question 10. I'll let you read the quote to yourself so we've read the what the stimulus is and now the question according to the source how would constitutional reform contribute to the process of reconciliation in Australia this might be a case of working out what is the incorrect response before you can jump straight to I know the answer I'll do it even remember in 2020 a few uh staff members were challenged by this question they'll put you added in misery and the answer is a is the correct response 2021 oh we're nearly to the present so which of the following was a key objective in the formation of the New South Wales ecumenical council um you might even look at the question there and think I could probably use that that question depending on put on what question 11 comes at this could be useful information you never know to address the causes of division among some Christian churches to find multi-faith initiatives in indigenous communities so do we think that that's a key objective to encourage the development of church-based schools to combine different religious Traditions so straight away that D we can cross that out straight away it's not going to be D because there's not a humanism is not about combining different religious Traditions as I said this all goes back to understanding your definitions and was there division among Christian churches what's that word when we we speak of to cause the causes of division that's that sectarianism that came a few years ago and another question that we were looking at so that division amongst Christian churches uh let's just jump to question seven before we get the answer for question six which of the following is true of the uniting church it was formed primarily to promote Interfaith dialogue I think that's a load of rubbish it is the second largest Christian denomination in Australia it is a member of the national Church's uh sorry National Council of churches in Australia this is where I said if you go back a few slides ago and have a look at what are some of the member churches do your own research because here is a question linking to exactly that or D it was formed to rival the growth in popularity of the Catholic church in Australia okay so our answers maybe you've already written them down somewhere maybe you've told a friend uh there was division among the churches and that's that idea of sectarianism and it is a member of the National Council of churches in Australia 2021 question nine which of the following is an expression of ecumenism methodists forming a new church with many Presbyterians and congregationalists the Church of England in Australia becoming the Anglican Church of Australia in 1981. an Aboriginal Community conducting a ceremonial gathering with a Baptist community a joint statement of principles issued by the National Council of Jewish Women of Australia and the council for Australian Catholic women so that actually is so much information that's a very rich question that requires uh if you're going to do a little bit of research and use these questions to help you in your study you could gain a lot of information just understanding this question so what is the answer to this one this as I said there's you know the United the Church of England well when when did it become the Anglican Church in Australia is that correct uh so many things to look at in your research and I hope you do take the time to go through and look through each of these methodists forming the new church and if you remember our slide from early on it actually gave away that answer in finding and doing a little bit of digging about the uniting church at the beginning of this um Zoom 2022 which of the following best describes the role of an ecumenical movement conversion of individuals to Christianity promotion of dialogue and understanding between its members provision of financial assistance and support to disaster affected communities or establishment of an organization when all Christians follow the same Authority so again which one of these would be considered uh not quite true and not really subscribing to what ecumenism is all about now providing financial assistance and support to disaster affected communities that that probably is something that the churches do combined to do but it's not what best describes the role of an ecumenical movement so don't get tricked in your response there so the correct answer is promotion of dialogue and understanding between its members okay uh these ones some people love them some people hate them statement one statement two make sure that you take the time to read these uh questions carefully and the answer for this one here statement one is false statement two is true okay that's the end of the multiple choice questions now we're moving on to the um five markers so question question 11. this is actually not a question I don't think this is from a trial paper or from a HSC I think this is just from a um I don't know from where it's from what from where it comes from but it's from my bank of information and the reason I chose today to speak to to you about it is because it has a um the stimulus there which is definitely linked to uh ecumenism but here in the question it says with reference from the stimulus explain the impact of ecumenical movements in Australia so be very aware of the plural the letter s is a very powerful letter in studies of religion questions so it's looking for you to provide more than one example so just that's something to be aware of that I wanted to pass on to you on this um this master class so before you start writing it's always just a good idea to use that space that white space that is around your paper to make sure you are understanding the limitations of the question and I know you've heard this all before but to make sure that you do address the the verb and to have examples to support what you're same so before you even start writing a question you might pick something and decide what you're going to choose from the stimulus to be worked into your response a good response and you'll see this later on in some of the examples refers to the stimulus more than once in in the time in the 15 lines and it's not much that you've got to write but uh it's really important to refer to the stimulus more than once and it's really important to be able to provide some statistics so just bring your your attention to this the ncls which is the National Church Life survey it provides statistics that you can put into your response but it's a matter of you um learning them so take the time don't have to learn every single statistic that's there that's available you just need to make the effort to grab on to one or two or three of them and use them in your responses oops okay so when we look at sorry back at that question there um we want to ask ourselves before we start writing about it well what is ecumenism why have we had to have ecumenism why what why these are the questions that we ask ourselves and then some of the impacts I've got four different impacts on these slides and you can go through and read them in your own time and make notes of them um to make sure that you have an understanding of them but go through and do that yourself to have an understanding of what are some of these impacts because the question is asking about impacts so make sure you're able to write about a few of them so just to talk about the National Church Life survey it's something that has been happening since 1991 so that's more than 30 years of research on on Christian churches when in Australia not all churches um take up there's it's an invitation to be involved not all churches take up that invitation but it certainly does provide a very good glimpse of what's going on in the churches in this country in the in Christian churches okay so here is just another question um oh here we go explain the factors which have led to an increase in Interfaith dialogues in Australia since 19 the 1980s so since the 1980s that's the limitation for this question it doesn't want to know what happened in 1960 1970 it's what happened in the night since the 1980s so you need to have some good examples up your sleeve and it's quite bright looking at all the colors but the colors are there for a reason the colors link up to the criteria and to what you've been asked to do so the explain in the uh fluoro yellow these are the explain phrases that are definitely in this response here the factors there's that s again the the powerful s so not explain the factor but explain the factors which have led to an increase in Interfaith dialogue activities so we're looking at factors not just a factor so 2 is plenty so you might talk about immigration and then you might talk about Asylum Seekers and refugees which it's not exactly the same thing because there's people that come here that are not refugees and Asylum Seekers that lead uh want to head to this country to this great South land and when we have all of these different multi-faith Multicultural denominations uh arriving here then we need the support of different uh organizations such as the NCCA and different organizations and initiatives that they have organized to assist people whoops okay so some points to make uh the term secularization means that people are separating themselves from religious institutions and hence people are deciding that religion some people are deciding that religion is irrelevant in their lives so as a result of this many faiths are driven that's like a catalyst for faiths to work together so they can have a more powerful voice uh in the public Arena to make sure that their voice is heard together on many different ethical issues and social justice issues and it's in this working together this Interfaith dialogue that they can make a powerful dish a difference okay so it's important then to distinguish between ecumenism and Interfaith dialogue and make the correct links so you don't want to be providing examples such as the New South Wales ecumenical council and uniting churches Australia if you're talking about Interfaith dialogue so make sure you're marrying up the right examples with the right events and the right initiatives to make sure that it makes sense for the marker oops okay um so when explaining factors which have led to an increase you could provide these are more examples that could uh support that response and just to ensure that you are writing like since 1980 keeping that in the Forefront of your mind there's many reasons you can choose to run on so putting in this here Census Data it's really good to have your statistics to back up what you're saying okay something that they're looking for in marking responses and we spoke about in the beginning about making sure you've got current examples sorry uh so you might talk about different examples if you're talking about the covert immunization that was a priority for homeless people churches work together to make sure that that happened and also voluntary assisted dying the debate with that as well and a really important Link in here in this just this final sentence here in doing this they make themselves more relevant which lends to being a living and dynamic religion uh in this increasingly secular society that we live in okay so here is a question the 2022 HSC five Mark response from question 11. uh here are some samples for you to read through at your leisure that uh were written by different students that I've taught and so they're de-identified you don't know who they are but they're all powerful responses that were uh rewarded with good marks there is also one that was not so good and we're going to have a look about at why maybe that was 2021 sorry 2022 here we go you will see that the um stimulus is referred to in this response and I've bolded the uh the center there the Colombian Center of Muslim and Christian relations that's the example that's used and the initiative is this youth power uh parliament of the world's religions with the ains clearly mentioned and thus revealing that indeed Interfaith dialogue is of vital importance within Australian uh currently and for the future so referring to current Census Data this is all the nice things this this response does referring to the stimulus referring to the stimulus giving an example especially giving some um some links to the Census Data as well to back up why Interfaith dialogue is so important in this country and and these responses I must say just fitted in the allocated space so there's the allocated space to write in and these responses did fit in within that space uh this is an another response here this was another good one again rich with the stimulus filtered through the response and also backed up with um some the the New South Wales Council for Christians and Jews uh and an initiative that it's got and the um Columban Center for Christian Muslim relations and talks about a conference the Abraham conference as a forum that is powerful for addressing the different issues you can read through these responses in your own time they're very nicely put together um which is why they were rewarded with full marks and I use the word rewarded intentionally because I know that these students really did work quite hard in um perfecting their responses and they were uh did quite well in the HSA last year and here's another one again you can see the bouldered parts standing out also supported with statistics right in front of your very eyes it's a great response and of course they are answering the question not just content dumping but actually answering the question and another one but I'm not going to go through all of these you can read them in your own time just wanted to point out what are the important parts that make sure you know everyone starts off with zero on their page and what do you do to ensure you get the five marks is you do what you can see that's obvious in these responses okay so here is one that you can try doing the highlighting part yourself explain the importance of interfaith dialogue in an increasingly pluralistic and multi-faith Society so if you make a copy of these um slides yourself you'll be able to go through it and try your highlighting tricks uh just to make it stand out for your make it obvious to you ah here we have here how have religious Traditions engaged in the process of Aboriginal reconciliation this is 2021's HSC question in 2012 the question was very very similar how have religious traditions in Australia given support to the process of Aboriginal reconciliation so instead of given support it's engaged with so uh very similar the way that the question is worded is the criteria now this response this is not someone's written response from 2021 HSC uh it's by a student in more recent times and how do I know that is because they are referring to the learn do learn to do good seek Justice initiative which was I think in 2023 so it's um someone that's done their research I remember I said to find some different places and name their events on that slide this is obviously what this person did and they were able to put it in their response again um a great response that would receive five marks I'm sure now this response would only be getting a mark of four so I'm going to give you a little bit of time to read that one to see what is missing in this response this is the part that needs uh to be enhanced so it says for example the Anglican Church provided a document so it might be might be a great way to improve these results by actually telling me well what is the name of the document so giving evidence that is not just so General as this and then it says an example of this is the annual week of prayer well of course it happens every every year but maybe they could tell me of a particular theme that linked to the annual week of prayer to enhance this ongoing process of reconciliation that they're trying to do maybe just simply by giving me more details that would enhance this result okay it says here this can be seen through the faith-based organizations as well as the words of priests and adherence well that is true but that's a very general if that makes sense so now over to you um what I would like you to do is here is a stimulus have a look at the stimulus it's an Interfaith prayer service for peace it was held in September in 2018 at the fellowship Center in Parramatta mission in Sydney and intended by 200 people representing many faiths and religious communities so here's a stimulus it's how about you try uh to design your own question what are the requirements of the syllabus Choose Your Own Adventure write a question and sometimes in writing questions and starting to think like a teacher you might even uh sort of anticipate what's going to be on the trial paper or the HSC uh good luck everybody in your quest for success and remember it's just about doing your best and in doing your best you can be really proud of yourself and be rewarded with what you deserve so um I hope everyone does their best and thanks for listening and thank you to Sydney Catholic schools for this opportunity to present thank you