ARRCC Committee member Murray Lobley was recently awarded the Victorian Premier’s Award for Community Harmony.

ARRCC Committee member Murray Lobley was recently awarded the Victorian Premier’s Award for Community Harmony.

ARRCC is proud to announce that J Murray Lobley, a member of the ARRCC management committee, has received the Victorian Premier’s Award for Community Harmony on 29 Sept 2014.

For many years, Murray has played a significant role in promoting community harmony through actively contributing to and leading the Interfaith Committee of the Gippsland Ethnic Communities Council. In this role, he has developed various programs to promote harmony and cooperation between the many ethnic communities within the region. With his vast experience and network in interfaith work, especially in Dandenong, he has brought some of the best practices in community harmony to Gippsland. 

Just some of Murray's initiatives include the Cultural Diversity Week Open House, the Talking Faiths forums in local libraries, involvement with the Challenge Family Violence project and the development of an education resource. He has also led interfaith tours of places of worship and initiated Gippsland’s A Taste of Faith, where people of different ethnic origins and religion come together to share special foods that have significance to their religion and culture.

Murray is a member of the Faith Communities Council of Victoria and the Council of Christians and Jews Victoria. He was also on the Melbourne Community Advisory Committee for the 2008 Parliament of the World’s Religions.

Watch Murray talk about what this award means: