
The
annual Christian ecumenical Shoah Memorial Service was held Monday 19
March 2018 at Melbourne Grammar School. The evening was organised by a
joint committee of members of the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne
Committee for Interfaith Relations, the Catholic Archdiocese of
Melbourne Ecumenical and Interfaith Commission, and the Uniting Church
Synod of Victoria and Tasmania Working Group on Christian-Jewish
Relations. Approximately 100 people gathered in a
darkened St Peter’s Chapel.
The service is a Christian commemoration of the tragedy
of the Holocaust, but a Shoah survivor is always invited to speak and a
member of the Jewish community recites the Kaddish, the traditional
Jewish prayer for those who have died. This year Philip Bliss OAM, chair
of the Council of Christians and Jews, prayed the Kaddish and Sarah Saaroni
OAM, a child Shoah
survivor, was the voice of memory.