|TOP|The top Anglican leader in Australia used his Christmas message as a chance to condemn the recent wave of racial violence in Sydney.

At a midnight service at St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane on Saturday night, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall called on “every Australian” to get along with people “we don’t know, love or like.”

His message came just two weeks after gangs of white surfers and ethnic Lebanese clashed in alcohol-fuelled riots at the popular Cronulla Beach.

Australia has been trying to mend its image after the violence, which evoked racist stereotypes and prompted police to cordon off some of Sydney’s most popular beaches.

|AD|In light of such pressures, Aspinall also urged the nation “to participate in a new beginning and a new kind of community” where everybody learns to live with differences.

He acknowledged that it seems natural to feel uncomfortable with different people, “but becomes dangerous if these tensions are allowed to grow.”

"At the same time, no Australian must ever be expected to put up with criminal behaviour and must be given protection and relief by police and the courts,” he said.

"Getting along well can begin simply with applying the basic childhood lessons of how to live decently in a community, including self control, of learning where people have come from and what matters to them, of not hitting out, and of sharing and talking to each other," he continued.

"Only when the basic law and order issues are addressed in significant part can community members feel safe enough to get on with the job of getting along.”








Elaine Spencer
Christian Today Correspondent