Paper short abstract:

I analyse the work of an Australian interfaith organisation throughout the crises of the past two years. Such organisations are uniquely positioned, providing faith-led responses to crisis while also critiquing religious and governmental views which potentially place communities at risk.

Paper long abstract:

Religions for Peace (RfP) Australia is one of around 90 country chapters that make up the global interfaith organisation of RfP, which relies on local actors to develop productive pathways to peace. As a globally linked but locally maintained organisation, RfP Australia uses the organisational weight and connections of RfP to respond to local challenges faced by Australian communities. The past few years have seen floods, fires, and plague wreak havoc throughout Australia, alongside governmental abandonment and increased community violence and distrust. However, there has also been an emphasis on community and individual resilience, growing pressure on governments for accountability, climate action, and care for vulnerable communities. Faith-based organisations such as RfP Australia work to address and critique the causes, impacts, and responses to such crises, often filling the gap left by the neoliberal retreat of the state. Drawing on 13 months of fieldwork with RfP Australia, I analyse how members of the organisation responded to the (in)action of government and communities, worked to balance the positive and negative elements of crisis, and how this shaped their work towards their overall goal of peace. I demonstrate how individuals navigated their faith communities, global RfP organisation, and individual faith responses to these crises, coalescing into an interfaith response that was curated to address political, health, and environmental turmoil with a purposeful faith-led lens. In analysing interfaith responses to crisis, I highlight how this provided a space of critique and reflection – of their own faith communities, and of the Australian government.