View Past Events
2025
Who Owns the Holy Land?
From February to June 2025 we held a series of forums around Australia. Their purpose was to build understanding and create empathy within the broader Australian community for Australian Palestinian Muslims and Christians affected by the conflict in Gaza.
PIEN partnered with Palestinian Christians in Australia and Friends of Sabeel Australia to hold these forums made possible with a grant from the Federal Government’s Community & Cohesion Support Program, delivered through the Social Policy Group.
The forums we held in each of the other major cities have received great feedback and responses. You can view some of them here.
2024
Ecumenical Service of Lament, Repentance & Hope
On Anzac Day, St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne held a special Ecumenical Service of Lament, Repentance and Hope. PIEN were pleased to help organise the main speakers. Mr Adnan Mansour and Mr Nachshon Amir tell of the impact on Palestinians of the war in Gaza. Adnan is a Palestinian, a Nakba survivor who has been living in Australia for more than half a century and Nachshon is a Jew, a former officer in the Israel Defence Force, who is now a pro-Palestinian activist. You can watch their powerful and emotive speeches here.
PIEN 2024 Book/ Speaker Tour
This tour was held with Mercy Aiken in April 2024 and focused on the book she co-authored with Bishara Awad, about his life and the founding of the Bethlehem Bible College, Yet in the Dark Streets Shining. You can view presentations, read articles, listen to interviews, hear stories and see photos here. On a few occasions Mercy was joined by other people, such as Tim Costello doing a Q&A session with her on the last day of the tour and Dr Rachel Coghlan spoke about her humanitarian Palliative Care work in Gaza at the ‘Hope, Resilience, and Resistance: Life in the Holy Land’ Whitley college gathering.
2023
No Place to Lay My Head Exhibition
PIEN, along with Free Palestine Melbourne, put on a joint Nakba exhibition in Oct/Nov 2023 that was held at St Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne. This exhibition lasted for 6 weeks and was very timely given the escalation in violence since Oct 7th 2023 and the genocide in Gaza. A short video of the exhibition can be viewed here.
Together we produced a stellar exhibition that focused on historical, cultural, personal stories and current reality of the past 75 years of the ongoing Nakba. One of the key organisers of the exhibition, artist Gaye Paterson, has produced this excellent digital booklet that showcases the exhibition with added content taking into account what has unfolded this year. You no doubt have heard it said that Israel was formed on a land without a people. To answer those who espouse this view, show them this booklet. It highlights what a thriving, bustling economy existed and how unjustly it was taken away.
2022
Voices of Hope
The Voices of Hope Palm Sunday service, April 2022 concluded our joint series with other like minded organisations – Sabeel Palestine, Sabeel Australia and Palestine Christians in Australia. The recording of the service can be viewed here.
Lenten Reflection Series
The Lenten Reflection series we co-hosted with Sabeel Australia and Palestine Christians in Australia was super informative:
16 March – The Palestinian experience in West Bank and Gaza. Key speaker: Salwa Duaibis. PIEN co-hosted this webinar featuring Salwa Duaibis, co-founder of Military Court Watch, an organisation that monitors the treatment of children in Israeli military detention. Salwa talked about the mechanics of occupation, particularly focusing on the impacts on children.
23 March – The Palestine experience in Israeli society. Key speaker: Daniel Munayer. Daniel talks about the lived experience of Palestinians within Israel. The State of Israel is often praised as being a ‘democracy’, but just how balanced, just and equal a society is it for Palestinians and other minorities that reside within the 1948 borders.
30 March – The Palestinian experience in the Diaspora. Key speakers: Faten Qunqar & Jason Damouni. Two young Palestinian Australian Christians, Jason Damouni and Faten Qungar speak about the complexities that exist for Palestinians in the diaspora.
2021
Cuisine & Culture in Conversation
In September 2021 PIEN organised this cooking class with Lama Qasem and Claudia Hyles where delicious food was prepared over engaging culinary and cultural conversation. You can watch the class here. And here is the short video on how to prepare Hareeseh (Semolina cake) which was recorded separately.
Hosanna in the Highest
PIEN co-hosted with Sabeel Palestine, this special Ecumenical Service on the eve of Holy week in April 2021, which enabled folk from different parts of the world to worship together. Contributors from both Palestine and Australia led prayers, songs and reflections. It was a beautiful service that is worth reliving. You can view the service here.
2018
PIEN 2018 Speaker Tour
The PIEN Speaker Tour with Areej Masoud in 2018 was a fantastic opportunity to hear a Palestinian Christian narrative. Born in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, Areej centred her messages around the theme is there ‘any hope for Palestine now, or ever?’ With engaging stories of hope and resilience amidst the everyday struggles to do the simplest of things like having access to go to work, Areej captivated her audiences.
You can access all the media interviews here with more information about the tour here. And this is an added podcast on Life & Faith from the Centre for Public Christianity which Areej gave.
2014
PIEN 2014 Speaker Tour
In September / October of 2014, PIEN co-sponsored with World Vision Australia a speaker tour with Arda Aghazarian, a Palestinian from Jerusalem. The month long tour throughout Australia reached thousands of people through public gatherings, radio and print interviews and presentations to church bodies.
View the photo gallery and snapshot of the tour, with links to media interviews to relive or avail yourself for the first time. Arda was warmly received and her message impactful. More