Please click HERE to download a PDF of the Yarra Institute brochure
The Yarra Institute for Religion and Social Policy is an independent ecumenical organisation committed to promoting scholarship and research on the social traditions of the Christian churches, particularly as they bear on current social issues.
As the name indicates, the Yarra Institute focuses on the interaction between religious belief and areas of social policy in Australia. It also explores how religious belief and moral values bear on specific issues, including economics and globalisation, hunger and poverty, inter-national aid and development, indigenous affairs, issues of war and peace, conflict resolution, social justice, the environment and climate change.
While it springs from Christian social traditions, the Yarra Institute recognises Australia’s secular, pluralistic and multicultural society, and commits to engaging with the broader culture in a collaborative effort to promote the common good. The Yarra Institute is the result of initiatives from the ecumenical
advocacy organisation, Social Policy Connections, though the Yarra Institute is a separately incorporated body with its own Board.
The signing of the MoU. Left to right, at rear: the incoming YTU President, Fr Chris Monaghan CP,
Dr Bruce Duncan, Dr Rowan Ireland, Dr Wes Campbell; in front, Dr Larry Nemer and Dr Stephen Ames.
The Yarra Institute was formally acknowledged by the Council of Yarra Theological Union in late 2008, and a Memorandum of Understanding signed. The then President of YTU, Dr Larry Nemer SVD, nominated Dr Bruce Duncan as initial Director of the Institute. YTU has generously provided office space, a room for the Redemptorist social justice library, and access to the facilities in the new YTU Study Centre.
WHAT YARRA INSTITUTE OFFERS
- SIGNIFICANT RESEARCH CAPABILITY to focus our intellectual resources more purposefully on current pressing social issues.
- A FORUM in which to explore how Christian social values and traditions could improve human wellbeing today.
- RESOURCES to deepen knowledge of Christian and other traditions of social concern, and to foster more lively interaction among them.
- A PLATFORM from which to engage in the public conversation, drawing from the deep ecumenical resources in Melbourne.
- WIDER NETWORKS of people concerned to contribute to the formation of public policy.
The Yarra Institute has an experienced Board of Directors with excellent resources to supervise research projects and higher degree students. The Yarra Institute would be pleased to discuss possible research projects or partnerships with other agencies or organisations.
Photo courtesy mrfink at flickr.
Yarra Institute research projects
Refugee Resettlement- Dr Joan Daw’s project on Young People, Faith, and Social Justice has been published and will be launched in 2013.
The morality of torture - Dr Cal Ledsham’s investigation on the morality of torture is in the final stages of writing.
Transforming asylum seeker policies - With funding from the Good Shepherd Foundation,
the Yarra Institute published Long-term health costs of extended mandatory detention of asylum seekers by Tony Ward in 2011, and is about to publish a detailed study by Dr Tony Ward and Caz Coleman on why community detention is better for refugees and Australia
The Church’s role in East Timor - Drs Jim and Therese D’Orsa are working with Bishop Hilton Deakin on his recollections of East Timor’s struggles for independence.
Publications and the Yarra Institute Press
With a grant from the Melbourne College of Divinity, the Yarra Institute in 2011 published online
The National Directory: Refugee and Asylum Seeker Support Services of the Australian Churches.
Our Yarra Institute Press has published S
ufficient for the day: towards a sustainable culture, a study of climate change by Dr Geoff Lacey. The Institute has also prepared an issue of the ATF journal,
Interface, on globalisation.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Volunteers
The Yarra Institute benefits greatly from the pro bono contributions of its supporters and volunteers. If you have skills you would like to contribute in this way, we would be pleased to talk with you.
As our research activities expand, so do our needs in administration, marketing, funding, editing and computer entry. Please contact the Director.
Financial support
Launched by the Hon Brian Howe AM in 2009, the Yarra Institute has developed with much good will and the involvement of key groups on an honorary basis. Our financial support has come mainly from a number of lay people and several Catholic religious orders. We would especially like to acknowledge the support of the Redemptorist Congregation, the Brigidine Sisters, and MacKillop Family Services. In addition, we wish to thank Bernadette Reeders, Drs Jim and Therese D’Orsa, and John and Paula McLeod for their timely contributions to this project.
As a research body within the Melbourne College of Divinity, the Yarra Institute is part of the national university system, and benefits from DGR tax deductibility in advancing the research aims within the MCD. The new Institute is eligible to apply for research grants from government and private sources, and to enter industry partnerships with church or other organisations for research.
How well the Yarra Institute achieves its potential will depend in large part on further financial support. Your donations can help us make a significant difference.
How to donate
Donations to the Yarra Institute can be made through The Finance Manager, The MCD University of Divinity, 21 Highbury Rd, Kew VIC 3101, with the request that the donation be forwarded to the Yarra Institute. The MCDUoD will issue a receipt. Or write to us at the Yarra Institute and we will forward your gift to MCDUoD.
Contact details: The Director,
Yarra Institute for Religion and Social Policy,
PO Box 505, Box Hill, VIC 3128.
Email: admin@yarrainstitute.org.au
Or write to us at the Yarra Institute directly and we will forward any tax-deductible donations through the Melbourne College of Divinity.
Contact details:
The Director,
Yarra Institute for Religion and Social Policy,
PO Box 505, Box Hill, VIC 3128.
Email:
admin@yarrainstitute.org.auwww.yarrainstitute.org.au Ph: (03) 9899 7444. Mobile: 0409 897 971; ABN: 41 920 916 986 CRICOS: 01037A
Members of the Yarra Institute Board
Rev Dr Stephen Ames (President) is an Anglican priest and Canon of St. Paul's Cathedral. He is an honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne, where he lectures in the History and Philosophy of Science programme. He has special expertise in the relationship between science and religion.
Rev Dr John Bottomley is a minister of the Uniting Church in Australia. He has had parish ministries in Knox and East St. Kilda, and is a founding member and Director of the Creative Ministries Network. The Network integrates faith with the arts to address issues of justice at work in a social, political and environmental context.
Dr Jim D’Orsa is involved in pastoral planning in the Diocese of Sale and chairs its Diocesan Strategy Team. He is also involved with Broken Bay Institute in the areas of leadership and missiology. His current research concentrates on the Theology of Mission as it applies to education; secularisation/secularity and their implications for education; and issues around ‘Catholic identity’ in schools.
Dr Therese D’Orsa is head of the Missiology Department at the Broken Bay Institute Sydney. She recently completed eleven years as Director of Catholic Education in the Diocese of Sale and also her term as Executive Director of the Catholic Education Commission of Victoria. She gives a special focus to justice education and mission. She is also a professorial fellow of ACU National.
Dr Rowan Ireland is an Honorary Associate in the School of Sociology at La Trobe University in Melbourne. He has had extensive field work in Latin America, and is investigating urban social movements in three Brazilian cities. He is also involved in studying the processes of secularisation and new forms of religious life and civil society in Australia.
John D'Arcy May has returned to Australia after leaving his position
as Associate Professor of Interfaith Dialogue at the Irish School of
Ecumenics. He has written extensively in may areas: Buddhist-Christian
dialogue, religious pluralism, ethics in multicultural societies,
Christian dialogue with Asian religions; religion in Australasia and the
Pacfic Islands, tribal religions, and religion and ecology. The Yarra
Institute is delighted that he has accepted the role of Associate
Director of the Institute.
Dr Robyn Reynolds olsh has had many years living and working with indigenous Australians. She lectures at YTU in Missiology and in Pastoral Theology and Ministry Studies.
Dr Paul Rule taught Religious Studies and History at La Trobe University where he remains an associate, and is now engaged in major research projects on Christianity in China for the Ricci Institute, University of San Francisco and Macao Ricci Institute. He is a former member of the Australian Catholic Social Justice Council and the Melbourne Justice and Peace Commission.
Director:
Bruce Duncan CSsR has lectured in history and social ethics at YTU since 1986. He has written on issues of religion and politics, war and peace, and on economics, poverty and global development. His latest book is Social Justice: fuller life in a fairer world (Garratt Publishing, 2012).