UQ’s annual multi-faith Thanksgiving Service this year will honour 87 anatomy donors, the largest number of donors in the service’s history.
The Thanksgiving Service will be held on Wednesday, May 7, at the UQ Centre at 5.30pm with Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Professor Michael Keniger as guest speaker.
This year the service coincides with 40 years of Chaplaincy at UQ.
UQ Chaplaincy administrator the Reverend Peter Rama Rau said the Thanksgiving Service would be among anniversary highlights of the year for UQ’s Chaplaincy Services, which was formed with approval of the University Senate on June 13, 1968. The Rev. Thomas Rees Thomas was the University’s first chaplain.
Initially staffed by three Christian chaplains, Chaplaincy has now grown to become the UQ Multi-Faith Chaplaincy Services, representing the Buddhist, Christian, Islamic and Jewish faiths.
“Chaplaincy provides a model of the way different religious groups representing very different traditions can work together harmoniously, to provide services to the whole University community,” Rev. Rama Rau said.
“We hope to continue to expand to include other religious groups and continue to help those who need guidance.”
The Rev. Rama Rau will join with representatives of Christian and Jewish faiths, together with staff and students to conduct this year’s event.
The UQ Thanksgiving Service organising committee chair is Leo Brown of the School of Biomedical Sciences.
Mr Brown said the University welcomed relatives and friends of donors, and interested members of the community to attend the service.
“The Thanksgiving Service provides an opportunity for staff and students to publicly express their appreciation for the extreme generosity of people who donate their bodies to the University for use in teaching and research,” he said.
“The gift of donors is important for the training of professional groups including medical, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, science, speech pathology and audiology, dentistry, pharmacy and human movement studies students,” Mr Brown said.
UQ has been holding the Thanksgiving Service since 1992, when it acknowledged all donors to the School of Biomedical Science's Bequest Program since 1927. The event was the first of its kind in Australia and New Zealand. Appreciated by relatives and the community, it is now an important UQ tradition.
Mr Brown said this year the service would specifically honour the 87 donors who died during 2006 and whose bodies had assisted students over the past two years to gain increased knowledge of human anatomy.
“The names of these donors are inscribed in a Book of Remembrance which is carried in procession,” he said.
“A central and very solemn part of the service is the lighting of knowledge candles and the ceremonial reading of donors' names. It's a very moving occasion.”
Mr Brown said other tertiary institutions in Australia and New Zealand had adopted UQ's model.
The University of Queensland Choir will sing at the service, led by Reka Csernyik of UQ's School of Music.
For details of the Thanksgiving Service, visit http://www.uq.edu.au/sbms/thanksgiving-service
People requiring more information can contact:
• Gabrielle Pascoe (Secretary) email: g.pascoe@uq.edu.au phone: (07) 3365 1950
• Leo Brown (Chairman) email: leo.brown@uq.edu.au phone: (07) 3365 2515
• Rev Peter Rama Rau (Chaplaincy Services) email p.ramarau@uq.edu.au, phone 3365 0759
Media: Thanksgiving Service chair Leo Brown (07 3365 2515) or Jan King at UQ Communications (07 3365 1120.
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