By Ms Natasha Davies, Secondary School Teacher

At the end of October several of our Year 8 students went on a RaVE (Religious and Values Education) excursion, which consisted of visiting four different centres of worship in Canberra: St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church of Canberra in Kingston, the National Jewish Memorial Centre in Forrest, the Sakyamuni Buddhist Centre in Lyneham, and the Gungahlin Mosque.

The students had a wonderful experience learning about the many different communities of faith in their own city. They had the opportunity to ask questions of each host and came away better informed about a variety of religions.

Some of the highlights of the day included seeing the beautiful and ornate interior of the Greek Orthodox Church, applauding Dr Alan Shroot’s blowing of the shofar (ram’s horn) at the synagogue, hearing Imam Hatem Saad recite a portion of the Quran, and experiencing the extremely kind hospitality of the Buddhist Master Kwan and the nuns who provided us with a great deal of snacks and gifts.

It was also a pleasure to see a number of students approach our different hosts to say thank you or ask further questions even after the formal discussion was over. They represented Radford College in a very respectful and inquiring manner.

Student reflections:

I enjoyed seeing all the different religions around Canberra and it really opened my eyes to the diversity of our city. Going to each of these places and learning about their traditions and culture was truly amazing and I am very grateful for getting this opportunity. It was an incredibly good addition to our World Religions studies that we have been doing in RaVE. By seeing how these churches and temples each work in similar but diverse ways, it helped me to understand the difference in religions and their deeper beliefs. Thank you to the organisers of the event and I hope that future grades get to have as much fun as I did – Connor

During the RAVE excursion we immersed ourselves in different cultures and explored the diversity that we have in Canberra. We explored St Nicholas’s church, the ACT Jewish Community, the Gungahlin Mosque and the Sakyamuni Buddhist Centre. Each of these cultural places offered a detailed description of what it was like to practice their respective religions. The experience was mostly student led with students being given the chance to ask any questions that they may have had about each religion. This excursion has helped build my knowledge on what we had been learning about in RaVE for the past semester, and I am very thankful that I have been given the opportunity to experience this excursion – Abhiram