Listen. This is the plea for all from Sister Veronica Lawson as conflicts from across the world continue to spill into the Ballarat community.
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Civic leaders, such as City of Ballarat mayor Des Hudson, have been echoing the same message this World Interfaith Harmony Week.
This comes as pro-Palestinian protests and rallies about the Israel-Hamas war continue to disrupt major events, such the the start of the AusCycling Road National Championships men's race in Buninyong in early January; white supremacists marching up Sturt Street on Eureka Day in early December; and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, set to enter a third year, creates handshake debates on sporting stages.
Cr Hudson said Harmony Week was a vital chance to promote community coming together and a sense of safety - and part of this was to be careful and considered in our rhetoric.
"[With conflict], not picking sides in such politics," Cr Hudson said. "We potentially may have people from either side in our community who have been living in conflict and fear...We need to absolutely be respectful where fields of conflict might impact our community."
Cr Hudson and Sister Veronica have been special guests for the annual Ballarat Interfaith Network flag raising ceremony at St Peter's Anglican Church, featuring prayers of peace and music to foster respect and understanding between people of diverse faiths, including those of no faith.
Sister Veronica, of the Roman Catholic Sisters of Mercy, has a mixed heritage of Irish Catholic, Scottish and Cornish Presbyterian and Assyrian Orthodox. She said she did not experience any true interfaith experience until living as a student in East Jerusalem in the the 1970s forming friends among people of Jewish, Islamic and diverse Christian faiths.
In the development of interfaith celebrations, Sister Veronica said mantras such as "love of God" or "love of the good" and "love of the neighbour" can be embraced by many faiths.
This has been why Sister Veronica has been calling from people to listen, hear and pay attention to each other more at a community level in times of world turmoil.
"Listen and pay attention to one another and there will be a less-strife driven world," Sister Veronica said.
As a guest speaker for Ballarat's interfaith ceremony, Sister Veronica drew on this further, both in terms of conflict and environmental crisis.
"As we mourn the loss of life in so many trouble spots as well as the loss of species, we find ourselves impelled to take seriously the command to love God or love the good and to love one's neighbour as oneself," Sister Veronica said.
"If we could inspire our communities to do this, we would truly create a more harmonious and peace-filled world, especially if we were to allow the notion of neighbour to include the more-than-human, all the creatures that make life possible in our wondrous planetary home."
World Interfaith Harmony Week is from February 1 to 7.
