Left to right: Rabbi Jacqueline Ninio, Mr Jeremy Jones, Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett, Mr Peter Wertheim, Bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabay OLM,
Rabbi David Freedman, Bishop Christopher Prowse and Mr William Arnold. Sitting: Bishop Michael McKenna, Rabbi Jeffrey Kamins, Sr Elizabeth Delaney.

On Thursday 8th May 2014, members of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference Bishops Commission for Ecumenism and Inter-religious Relations (BCEIR) met with leaders from the Jewish community for their annual conversation.

In keeping with the Extraordinary Synod on the Family, the Jewish leaders and the members of the BCEIR had agreed on the main focus of the conversation as; The Family.

This conversation recognised that modern society has different understanding of family. Both faiths seek to respond to people with respect and love.

During this time, the members of the Jewish community remembered Bishop Michael Putney and recalled the very significant contribution that he made to ecumenism and to relations with Jews, both internationally and in Australia.

They noted that the 50th Anniversary of Vatican II’s Nostra Aetate occurs in 2015 and agreed that it will be fitting that Jews and Catholics together might mark this occasion.