March 9, 2025

ICLRS Conference Auckland

The Law and Religious Liberty conference in Auckland.  I’ve served on the planning committee for several months.  I enjoyed meeting these people in person for the first time.  (ICLRS – International Center for Law and Religious Studies)

Sister Lily Sloan, local service missionary, also served on the planning committee.  She rose to the occasion magnificently.  She works in our office two days a week.

BYU Hawaii students helped during the conference. 

I felt honored to serve on this committee with marvelous members such as Jennifer Kajiyama Tinkham.  As a BYU-H professor I was sure she would know my dear missionary companion, Carol Peterson.  Sure enough, they are good friends.  The world is so small.  I’m thrilled to call Jennifer my new friend.

“Jesus” offered the Māori welcome to the conference.  Seriously, Anthony Buttars, the actor who portrays Jesus in the Book of Mormon videos lives in Hamilton, NZ and works in film production.  He wore a regular suit, what a handsome Māori man he is.  One of our OGC members talked with his mother.  Anthony is one of 14 children.

Anthony Buttars

Anthony Buttars with his wife, family members and conference guests.

Rick and I are on the right side towards the back.  What a wonderful, diverse, and united group.  It was a pleasure to participate in this conference.  I won’t miss the 7:00 AM planning meetings, but I’ll miss the regular association of the marvelous committee.

The Temple View Singers provided dinner entertainment.  Their voices were incredible as they shared Māori music and culture.

Hon. Vaine “Mac” Mokoroa – Cook Islands Minister of Justice

The Parliament in Cook Islands currently considers a bill to make Christianity the national religion.  Many Muslim workers have moved there and some feel threatened.  Two years ago, Judge Mokoroa attended the ICLRS Conference at BYU.  He recognizes his people fear what is new and hopes they will reconsider doing something rash to assuage their discomfort instead of being inclusive to all faiths.

Jeremy Jaggi-counselor in Pacific Area Presidency, Reverend Abhishek Solomon-Trinity Theological College, Ram Lingham-Auckland Inter-Faith Council, Sister Cahterine Jones-Society of Mary New Zealand, Sheikh Mohammad Amir-Mufti of New Zealand, and Hannah Smith-Associate Director ICLRS-BYU.

These distinguished guests spoke brilliantly.  Sister Jones shared a tender connection made between young LDS missionaries and the elderly in Auckland who needed help in their gardens.  She raved about the physical service and spiritual uplift the missionaries provided to these aged individuals.

Elder Jared Ormsby of the 70 introduces religious freedom brochures for several countries of Oceania at the Auckland conference on 21 February 2025.  These brochures provide information in Pacific languages about freedom of religion or belief laws in each legal jurisdiction.

Elder Ormsby offered a great introduction to those who’ve not yet seen these pamphlets.  All contain two common sections: Religious Freedom in International Law and Finding Common Ground.  Then, the first section specifies Freedom of Religion and Worship in that specific country.  The writing is concise and simple, intended to be understandable to high school students.

Religious Freedom Brochures were available in English, and for New Zealand, in Māori.  This represents a chunk of my mission time.  I serve as the facilitator for this project.    We’ve almost completed the brochures for each of the Pacific countries.  Translation is still in progress for those nations that use more than English.

I heard a few comments about these materials from attendees.  One of the presenters raved about the availability of this information in one place.  He mentioned the difficulty in finding the exact religious laws for each country.  He then asked, “I feel like a kid in a candy store, may I have one of each?”  I was THRILLED.

Keith Thompson pushed to complete all materials needed to publish the Australia brochure in time for this conference.  He is a Professor at Notre Dame University in Australia.  As a former ALC, he provides a major role in legal matters for the church in the religiously volatile land of Australia.

Rick stands with Paul Martin Morris, Victoria University of Wellington-UNESCO Chair in Interreligious Understanding and Relations in NZ and the Pacific.  His interesting presentation compared the temple ceremony to ancient sacred religious rites. 

This panel was one of my favorites – powerful and sobering.

Religious freedom laws have deteriorated in Australia.  Many speakers addressed this.  It begins subtly, then builds.  I later spoke with two of the presenters who claim they’ve fought against this erosion for 40 years.

Saturday evening included a special tour of the Auckland Temple.  Only the invited guests, not of our faith, and their guides were allowed to attend.  The open house had not yet officially begun.  We heard great reports about the temple visit.

Sunday Inter-faith activities included a visit to an Auckland Mosque, and a Māori Marae (above).  We were not able to attend these events.