Multifaith Commonwealth Day Celebration

10 MARCH 2025

11:00 AM, THE CHAPEL, 15 BLACKALL ST, BARTON

www.acc-c.org.au

The Commonwealth Day Celebration Committee is an informal group of representatives of the Royal Commonwealth Society (ACT), the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture and leaders of various religious denominations. 

Commonwealth Day is celebrated annually on the second Monday of March throughout the Commonwealth of Nations.

The main activity of the Committee is the conduct of an annual multi-faith celebration. Each year there is theme selected by the Commonwealth Secretariat in London. The celebration is based upon a parallel event held in Westminter Catherdral (London) which is attended by the King who delivers a message focused on the theme.

In Canberra the Celebration is held at the chapel of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture in Barton, ACT and involves leaders from all of the major religions as well as cultural performances representing various Commonwealth countries.

Faiths represented include Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh. Cultural performances involve participants from various countries representing the broad diversity of the Commonwealth. Commonwealth High Commissioners, Federal and local ACT politicians and other dignitaries as well as the public are invited to attend. The King’s Commonwealth Day message is read.

The RCS Annual General Meeting will be held on

Wednesday 12 February at 6pm 2025 at the

Verco Room, Wesley Uniting Church, 20 National Circuit, Forrest, ACT

Please also note that annual membership fees are due

$30 per individual or $40 for couples. 

Youth membership is still $5. 

Payment can be made by bank transfer into the RCS ACT Westpac account 032 778149355 or by cheque to The Treasurer, RCS ACT, PO Box 3626, Manuka ACT 2603.

Full membership entitles you to vote at the AGM.

RCS Council Meeting - RCS Council Members.

Contact us at contact@rcsact.org for more information.

The Samoan CHOGM: Have Small States Revitalised the Commonwealth?

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) held in Samoa from 21-26 October 2024, was a remarkable achievement for a small island Pacific state. Samoa hosted around 4000 delegates, heads of government, officials and civil society representatives, from 56 member nations, as well as King Charles III as Head of the Commonwealth. Outcomes included an Oceans Declaration, the adoption of Principles on Freedom of Expression, the election of a new Secretary General (Hon Shirley Botchwey Foreign Minister of Ghana) and endorsement by Commonwealth countries for Australia and the Pacific to host the UN climate summit, COP 31, in 2026. The leading role of small developing island states and civil society have given impetus to a more prominent role for the Commonwealth in international affairs in a divided world. The next CHOGM, to be held in Antigua and Barbuda - another small island developing state - in 2026, will build on the themes from Samoa.

Join us as we hear from an expert panel consisting of

• The Samoan High Commissioner, Excellency Hinauri  Petauna;

• Kate Wallace, Australia's Senior Official at CHOGM & DFAT Assistant Secretary;

• Hon Professor Matthew Neuhaus, former senior Commonwealth Secretariat official and a civil society representative in Samoa.

This is a joint meeting with the ACT Branch of the Royal Commonwealth Society.

Drinks and nibbles will be served from 5:30pm!

If you have any accessibility requirements or need to contact the ACT Branch, please email act.branch@internationalaffairs.org.au or call us on 0403 932 571.

Royal Commonwealth Society

(ACT Branch)

Phyllis Montgomerie Commonwealth Award

Applications for 2025 awards are now OPEN 

To apply, please fill out all sections of the online application form (linked here) and submit by the deadline

5:00pm on Friday 4th of October 2024. 

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION AND APPLICATION FORM

Satendra Nandan - Life Journeys: Love and Grief

Book Launch

Join Satendra Nandan with Emeritus Professor Peter Putnis, of UC, who will chair the occasion and a ‘Reading’ by Dr Gitanjali Nandan.
The Foreword to the volume is by Emeritus Professor Will Christie, former Director of the Humanities Research Centre, ANU who will launch the volume.

Drinks will be available from the bar on arrival. Life Journeys: Love and Grief will be available for purchase.

This is a free event but reservations are essential to manage numbers. Please RSVP with name and telephone number via rsvp@thestreet.org.au

Life Journeys is a book of remembrances: Satendra, a Fijian poet, parliamentarian and professor, writes about the people he has known, loved and lost within Fiji, India, Australia, and New Zealand— the four corners of his heart. The book is a meditation on love and loss, life and death in poetry and prose.

There’s also a personal portrait of the late Professor Ian Donaldson, the Foundation Director of the HRC with which Satendra has been associated since its inception in 1974.

Born in Fiji, with an indentured heritage, Satendra became the first Labour Member of Parliament in Fiji and was a cabinet minister in Dr Timoci Bavadra’s Labour Coalition Government until the military coup on 14 May, 1987.

Satendra came to Canberra, after the second coup, with his wife and two daughters on Christmas Eve 1987; he returned to Fiji after more than five years—this poignant journey, titled ‘Return Flight to Paradise’, forms the last section of the book.

Foyer | Unreserved | Duration 90 minutes
Click here for information on COVID 19 venue safety.

More information

The Street Presents
Satendra Nandan - Life Journeys: Love and Grief
Book Launch

Friday 20 September, 6pm

Free Event: Please RSVP with name and phone number via rsvp@thestreet.org.au

National Zoo & Aquarium, Canberra

Photo: David Plummer

Annual RCS ACT members’ lunch and guest speaker

The High Commissioner of Sri Lanka

HE Chitranganee Wagiswara

All members and friends welcome.

If you are not yet a member it is not too late to join - please use the link to applications on the website.

RCS Winter Lunch

12 Noon Sunday 25 August

Rama's Fiji Indian Restaurant

Pearce Shops, ACT. 

Cost is $55 pp. BYO, no corkage fee and soft drinks will be on sale.

Low Commonwealth Lecture

Tuesday 23 July 600-8pm

Australian National University

Please note the venue change for Anthony Low Commonwealth Lecture 2024.

The event will take place at the Molonglo Theatre, Level 2, JG Crawford Building, 132 Lennox Crossing, Canberra ACT 2600.

Speaker  John McCarthy AC former Australian Ambassador

Topic: “Tensions in Foreign Policy Making: Dealing with the Real World”

The lecture will be followed by refreshments.

No charge but please RSVP to President@rcsact.org  It is also likely to be advertised on Eventbrite.

About the speaker:

Currently: Vice Chancellor's Fellow, University of Melbourne; Senior Adviser Asialink; Senior Adviser Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, Tokyo.

Formerly: National President, Australian Institute of International Affairs; Sugden Fellow, Queens College Melbourne; Chair, Australia-India Council ; Co-convenor, Australia-Indonesia Dialogue. 

1968 -2009 DFAT: including Ambassador to Vietnam; Mexico;Thailand; the United States; Indonesia; Japan; and High Commissioner to India. In Canberra, Chief of Staff to Foreign Minister, Chief Legal Officer and Deputy Secretary.

1964-67: Barrister at Law, London and Attorney Shearman and Sterling , New York .

Educated: Cambridge University MA LLB 

Honours:

AO (Jan 1999) and Centennial Medal 

Honorary doctorates Griffith and Murdoch universities. 

Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs. Asialink Weary Dunlop Medalist.

Japanese Order of the Rising sun , Gold and Silver Star.

RCS members are welcome to a Roundtable with Anne Gallagher, Director General of the Commonwealth Foundation on Thursday 18 July at 2pm at ANU

Anne will brief on plans for the Commonwealth Peoples Forum to be held in Samoa on 20-21 October 2024 in the lead up to CHOGM.  This is organised by the London based Foundation to ensure civil society voices are heard by Heads of Government at CHOGM.  She will also discuss the work of the Foundation with civil society and governments across the Commonwealth.

The meeting is in the ANU College of Law Liz Allen Conference Room Building 7 (the central block) on Level 4.  Please RSVP to President@rcsact.org if you would like to attend.

KING’S BIRTHDAY DINNER

AUSTRALIA-BRITAIN SOCIETY AND ROYAL COMMONWEALTH SOCIETY

Celebrating the Second Year of the reign of HM King Charles III,

King of Australia and Head of the Commonwealth

GUEST OF HONOUR AND SPEAKER:

H.E. Mrs Vicki Treadell CMG MVO

British High Commissioner to Australia

Where: THE COMMONWEALTH CLUB, 25 Forster Crescent, YARRALUMLA

When:   7.00pm for 7.30pm THURSDAY 13th JUNE, 2024  

Cost: $125 / 3 course dinner, pre-dinner drinks, wine

Dress: BLACK TIE, Decorations (miniatures)

OPEN TO ALL MEMBERS AND GUESTS

RSVP: THURSDAY 6 JUNE, 2024

to RSVP, please email president@rcsact.org

Annual planning meeting for RCS ACT Council members

This meeting is for council members and invited guests

Photo: Landscape, Jervis Bay, ACT, Australia

David Plummer

Commonwealth Week Multi-faith Observance

The Chapel,

Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture,

15 Blakall Street, Barton, ACT

acc-c.org.au

The Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture and the Commonwealth Day Committee is pleased to announce the upcoming service for Commonwealth Day, with the theme "Prayers for Peace." This event, to be held at the Chapel, Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture promises to be a celebration of unity and diversity within the Commonwealth.

The Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture is proud to partner with the Commonwealth Day Committee to host this event, which symbolises their commitment to fostering interfaith dialogue and promoting peace. This event falls under one of the four pillars of the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, ‘Peace through new religious engagements.’

Photos from around the Commonwealth

Monastery overlooking the Indus River,

Ley and Ladakh,

India

Photo: David Plummer

RCS (ACT) Annual General Meeting

Guest Speaker: Libby Ellis, President, RCS South Australia

Verco Room,

Wesley Uniting Church

20 National Cct

Forrest ACT 2603

Australia

CLICK HERE to download the Agenda for the 2024 RCSACT AGM

Photos from around the Commonwealth

The Pitons,

ST. Lucia,

West Indies

Photo: David Plummer

RSC (ACT) Council Meeting (Council Members)

Photos from around the Commonwealth

Brighton Beach, Melbourne, Australia

Photo: David Plummer

Guest of Honour, Anne Gallagher, Director General, The Commonwealth Foundation

Photo: Flamingos

David Plummer

Bi-monthly meeting of RCS ACT Committee

Photo: Images from around the Commonwealth

Morning mist in Rajasthan

Photo by David Plummer

POSTPONED UNTIL MARCH 2024

Annual Cricket match for the Major General Anton Muttukumaru Trophy played between the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Vs. Commonwealth High Commissions - 2023

When: 10 am- 4:30pm Sunday, 19 November 2023

• 10am Softball Match

• 12 noon-1pm Introduction to cricket

• 1pm Commonweralth V DFAT Annual Cricket Match

Where: Forestry Oval, Wilf Crane Crescent, Yarralumla, ACT 2600.

This historic cricket encounter has been played since 1966. The winner's trophy was donated to the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) in 1967 by one of the initiators of this cricket match, Major General Anton Muttukumaru, former High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to Australia.

The event also raises funds from the sale of refreshments and donations for an identified Commonwealth Country charity. Last year's charity proceedings were sent to Flood Relief work in Pakistan.

Save this date

Royal Commonwealth Society and Australia Britain Society

Spring Lunch

12 noon for 12:30pm

Royal Canberra Golf Club

Images from around the Commonwealth

Laneway Graffiti, Melbourne, Australia

Photo: David Plummer

“Sri Lankan Street Food Festival” at the Sri Lanka High Commission Garden on Saturday, 21st October 2023 from 10.00a.m. to 2.30p.m.

This event will be held as part of the “Windows to the World” Programme organized by the ACT Government.

In addition to the street food stalls, there will be “Hopper making demonstration”, Ceylon iced tea tasting, displaying colourful Sri Lankan wooden masks etc. at this event.

Please join with your family and friends.

Sri Lanka High Commission

No. 61, Hampton Circuit,

Yarralumla, 

Canberra, ACT 2600.

Tel : 02-61983755

Images from around the Commonwealth

Sri Lanka

David Plummer

Council Members and Invited Guests

Government House Open Day

All are welcome for the Government House Open Day on Saturday 7 October 2023 from 10:00am - 2:00pm.

Enjoy the beautiful gardens, tour the House and explore one of the most historic properties in Australia.

There is lots of room to spread a picnic rug, for children (and adults!) to run around and for all to enjoy the atmosphere and views. Guided walking tours will run throughout the Open Day - no tickets required. 

Bring your own food and drinks (there will also be food to purchase from a sausage sizzle and local coffee vendors).

Parking is available on Dunrossil Drive.

More information click here

The Commonwealth Short Story Prize

Opens for entries on 1 September 2023

Writers from across the Commonwealth are invited to submit their stories for a chance to win the UK£5,000 prize. The prize is open to citizens of all 56 Commonwealth countries aged 18 and over. To be in contention, you need to submit a 2–5000 word story before 1 November 2023.

The prize is free to enter and open to everyone regardless of previous writing experience. We accept stories submitted in 13 different languages or those translated into English from any language.

For more information see here:

Commonwealth Short Story Prize

Images from around the Commonwealth

Mission Beach, Rainy Season, Queensland, Australia

Photo: David Plummer