Protests by Indian students at racist attacks and other crimes have spread from Melbourne to Harris Park, walking distance from the Anglican Media offices in Parramatta.
The issue has been getting sustained coverage in the Indian press.
Some of the articles provide emotive details largely ignored by Australian media outlets.
What is the perspective of Indian Christians in Sydney?
Speaking to churches around the epicentre of Harris Park, its clear that Indian Christians - as English speakers - are highly integrated into the various (fairly polyglot) local churches.
A bigger issue for Indian Christians in Australia is the killing of their brethren by Hindu militants. Tensions were still evident this week in Orissa. Indeed All Saints, North Parramatta (which includes Harris Park in its parish) has been assisting fundraising for families impacted back in India.
But it’s very heartening to see the ongoing efforts of local Anglican churches to reach out to the Indian students in Sydney.
1. Listening to the Indian students
Sydneyanglicans.net spoke to the Rev Manoj Chacko and his wife Ramabai from Holy Trinity, South Liverpool, as they were planning to visit Harris Park to listen directly to the concerns of the Indian students
"This is a genuine issue," says Manoj who also heads the Regional South Asian Ministry (RESAM), pointing out that most students are very vulnerable, living in poor high-crime areas and working in late-night, high-risk jobs.
The Chackos have 15 years experience helping Indian migrants adjust to Australian life through their Transitions program.
Whereas Indian Christians tend to be quickly integrated into local Australian churches, very few of the overseas students are Christians. Nearly all are Hindus from the north.
"These protests have opened our eyes to a whole gamut of things," says Ramabai, saying there is little connection between the Indian students and the pre-existing Indian migrant community.
"The Indian community leaders who have been here 30 years - wealthy doctors and lawyers [who don't live in Western Sydney] - have said it’s all over-blown. That has really hurt the Indian students and made them feel even more rejected and alienated."
She says local churches have done a good job of ministering to Christian Indian students but there has been little connection with the bulk of Hindu students.
"The rich Indians send their kids to university in the UK or US," Ramabai says. "These students are from middle-class families and their parents have raised huge loans to send them with dreams that they will make a new life in Australia. It's very complex. The students have to just take any job to survive - which means they are coming home very late at night. They have a very difficult life here. Some are very isolated. They can live 10 in a flat, sleeping on mattresses on the floor."
"We need to listen to them. They are now very suspicious and very scared. Their morale is very low."
There is a large Indian migrant community in Liverpool, but few overseas students. There is a pocket of students further west in Campbelltown.
"We are just exploring what we can do for them. We want to meet up to see what they really require," says Manoj.
2. A $36million 'safe haven'
It may surprise you to learn that Sydney Anglicans officially opened a $36 million world-beating post-graduate facility on May 8 that directly addresses some of the issues raised by the Indian students.
"There is no other facility like it in Australia," says Professor Trevor Cairney, Master of New College at the University of NSW (UNSW) about the New College Village (NCV) .
"It is very unique," says Prof Cairney. “Most universities neglect their postgrads and think they can just go and live in an apartment down the road. Our view is that this isn't the right approach for our many overseas students. Rather than being alienated in a new country we want to support them personally, academically and pastorally. We are trying to build a collegial environment in a modern building which is self-catered."
NCV employs academic tutors to provide tutorial and individual help, while pastoral care is provided by Senior Residents who live on every floor.
Already NCV is seeing students from 55 nationalities - including a large number of Indian students - co-existing very happily. While students are treated as adults - cooking for themselves in their own units - community-building facilities have been cleverly designed into the building through 'entertainment' common spaces such as TV lounges and a BBQ facilities on the roof. All this flows from a comprehensive vision for Christian ministry and a variety of activities that encourage the building of relationships between residents.
The vision of developing such a community has been realised in a very short period of time. The new building was filled immediately and now has a waiting list. Other universities are now talking to New College about replicating the model elsewhere.
"Students see places like ours as a safe haven. It is clear that some overseas students are opting to come to our building because of its community focus, its strong support, the Christian foundations of New College and the location on campus," says Prof Cairney.
3. Welcoming students into church
In February St Andrew's Strathfield welcomed the Sub-Continental Bible Ministry - which had been using their church building for a Thursday night meeting - as a formal congregation of the parish.
The Thursday night Bible Study was started on the campus of UNSW a number of years ago by overseas students from the Indian sub-continent.
Joining up with St Andrew's has seen the launch of a new Sunday Night church service for the students. About 45 people attend the Bible Study, while 35 attend the Sunday service.
However, the Rev Sam Hwang from St Andrew's asks that Sydney Anglicans pray 'for a stronger connection' with the Indian community in Strathfield.
"The racial violence issue hasn' t really hit Strathfield," he said, adding that divisions within the Sri Lankan community between Tamils and Sinhalese over the civil war has been more of an issue. In fact the congregation has been actively caring for a Sri Lankan refugee family.
"We need prayer for unity of mind. and that our ministry will be noticed in the local community," Sam says.
4. Raj Gupta: act on racism
Again there is evidence that the Connect09 strategy makes sense to a wider community that is looking for opportunities to bond.
Further west, Toongabbie Anglican Church - whose rector is of Indian descent himself - is going to hold an Indian Food Festival as a bridge between the various communities.
The Rev Raj Gupta wrote the following letter to his parish, which sums up a Christian response to the anti-Indian violence:
In recent times, and again as recently as this week, there has been a heightening of the number and scale of - what appear to be - racially motivated attacks within our country. Deeply ingrained racism in Australia is nothing new. Just a few years ago, many will remember the Cronulla riots.
This time, the attacks seem to be directed to those within the Indian community. The people of our church should feel some outrage about these attacks. Firstly, we live in an area which has a very strong Indian and sub-continental contingent. This is a fact for which we give thanks to God, and at this time we should stand with our fellow human beings against these attacks.
The second reason that we should feel a sense of outrage is because we are Christians. Jesus came into the world to give his life so that every individual can have the opportunity to turn back to God (Ephesians 2:8-9). In doing so, he broke down the dividing wall of sin that existed between us and God. A direct result is the breaking down of barriers between people, as together the people of all nations rejoice in Jesus. God desires for people to put aside their differences as they realise they are nothing compared to what God has done by sending Jesus to give his life.
I hope, at the minimum, this spurs us to pray for what is happening in our community.
In the last 2 years at Toongabbie Anglican, one of our greatest joys has been to welcome into our church community so many people of a sub-continental background. One of the greatest opportunities our church has is to bring the message of Jesus’ death and resurrection to this people group. And, under the sovereignty of God, he is blessing our church with exactly the right resources to do so.
In fact, in a few weeks time I am calling together those with a heart to reach those of a sub-continental background. With the coming up of the Indian Food Festival in August, and also the visit of the Archbishop, the time has arrived for us to pray and think about how we can reach the thousands of sub-continental people that God has blessed our community with.
