Affiliate Benefits

The benefits of becoming an affiliate of the Interfaith Church of Australia

  1. You will have the opportunity to become actively involved with an Interfaith organisation and Australia's first truly Interfaith Church.
  2. You will have the opportunity to interact with and come to understand other religions and influence how they view your beliefs.
  3. You will have the opportunity to clearly represent your beliefs to others under an umbrella of acceptance for all beliefs.
  4. You will have the opportunity to influence how your religion/ belief will be represented on the website of the Interfaith Church, add content to it and address any misinterpretations or misrepresentations that may exist.
  5. The possibility of recognition of your own religious celebrants under Australian law.
    The Interfaith Church will be seeking recognition as a Religious Institution from the Attorney-General's office which will allow it to act as an administrative body for its affiliate organisations and appoint religious celebrants nominated by them as required under the Marriage Act 1961. We will not impose any requirements other than what is necessary under the Act. Currently this is acceptance of our (very liberal) canons and some form of training. There may be a requirement to have some part of the marriage ceremony the same amongst groups, however this can be discussed with all affiliate groups prior to application and appears flexible enough to allows some variations that will suit all beliefs.
    From our website: "Current legislation precludes many minority religions and belief systems who do not have large congregations or lack a central administrative authority. The Interfaith Church of Australia seeks to bring these groups together and represent them to the Attorney-General's Department without interfering in their religious structure."
  6. In time an online learning facility will be made available to you to provide teaching to your clergy, aspirants, members and other interested parties through the development of an Interfaith College/ University. This will be provided at low or no cost and you may develop or influence both internal (for your use only) or external training. Any profits (if they exist) will be divided between the College and your organisation. In addition we are seeking to offer a course in comparative religion to schools and you may also have an input into this. Training will be made available to all members of affiliate organisations at a reduced cost to that offered to the general public. This project is currently under development and is expected to be active in 12-24 months. Once it has been trialled, national and/ or international recognition of the training will be sought.
  7. Opportunities will exist to address meetings, present training and conduct services to different people at our interfaith meetings/ services, online through our teaching institution and via the Interfaith Church website.
  8. You will have the opportunity to suggest and/ or drive further incentives and initiatives that may benefit affiliate organisations, address discrimination and rectify injustices which can be implemented by the Interfaith Church.

If you see any disadvantage to becoming affiliated with the Interfaith Church, please bring it to our attention so we can address it. If you can think of further advantages that exist or can exist we would be equally happy to hear from you.