Multifaith Speakers

Rev Bill Crews

Rev. William David Crews was born in England in 1944 and educated in Australia. He studied Electrical Engineering at the University of N.S.W. under scholarship provided by A.W.A. He then worked with A.W.A in microelectronic research studying the properties of silicon until 1971. During his time he built the first machine to grow ultra pure single crystal silicon in Australia. In late 1969 he first visited the Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross and ultimately became involved in voluntary programmes; visiting the elderly, sick and shut-ins of the Woolloomooloo-Kings Cross area.

By 1971 he had decided to quit engineering and work full time at the Wayside Chapel. Bill was a member of the team that created the first 24-hour Crisis Centre in Australia. By 1972 he was Director of the Crisis Centre and directed all the social work programmes of the Wayside Chapel until 1983. During that time he established the first program in Australia to reunite adoptees and birth parents (Reunion Register), and the first programme to assist parents who were at risk of abusing their children (Child Abuse Prevention Service). He also established the first modern youth refuge in Australia.

In 1983 he left the Wayside Chapel to study Theology at the Uniting Church's United Theological College and graduated in 1986. In that same year he was ordained as minister of the Ashfield Uniting Church. At Ashfield he created the Exodus Foundation to assist homeless and abandoned youth, and other people in need. Today the Exodus Foundation runs the Loaves & Fishes Free Restaurant" serving up to 400 meals to the needy every day. The Foundation also operates a Tutorial Centre to educate children who have fallen through the cracks in the mainstream education system. It runs a free dental and medical clinic, provides help and support services such as social workers, chaplaincy, counselling, and food parcel assistance.

Since August 2002 Rev. Crews has broadcast his Sunday Night Crews radio program on Sydney station 2GB-873AM. The program has consistently been the highest rating Sunday night radio show in the Sydney market, with an audience share of 17.8%* and 100,000 listeners.

Shaykh Ibrahim al Ansari

In his whole life, he has sought answers. He wanted to know if there was a God. He wanted to know why there is pain and suffering, why people hurt each other, why there are wars and what holds everything together. He looked for answers everywhere by studying Tibetan Buddhism, Zen, Hinduism, Kabala, Alchemy, Masons, Rosicruscianism, Judaism, Christianity, Teachings of Don Juan, Magic, and many other shops of spirituality.... He also went to various spiritual teachers, sacred spaces and events, learned many things and had many insights.

When he read The Sufis by Idries Shah, things started making more sense. He began a new search - one for a true teacher. It would be 20 years later that he would finally find my Shaykh, Taner Ansari. Through his Shaykh and the teachings of the Qadiri-Rifa’i Tariqa came the answers, slowly, and with a continually deeper understanding. When he was young he asked God many times to teach him how to do His will. One day he saw an ad in the newspaper. He answered it. It was someone leading zikrs. He went and learned and asked questions. Finally his Shaykh came to visit. He could feel a door opening for him.

During those 20 years before he met his Shaykh, he took courses in Kabbala, Tibetan Buddhism, Sanskrit, Anthropology of World Religions, eventually receiving a BA degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz in Performance Integration of World Myths and Musics. Later he received an MA in Music Composition from Mills College in Oakland.

He has been a musician and composer almost his entire life - that’s about 50 years of practicing and performing and recording. Music and those years of experience have taught him much about self-discipline, and without it he would not have understood the way of Sufism or other true paths. It has become more and more clear to him, working with students for the past 20 years, that it is vital to be able to tell the difference between true and false paths. It is also important to understand the need for long-term commitment to a true path. As our society tries to adapt to worsening education and the continued greed of capitalism, the need for an ethical and spiritual reality makes itself not only apparent but also vital to the soul of Australia. True paths such as Sufism and Buddhism offer a remedy of mercy and compassion in a heart-starved world.

He offers his services to the spiritual communities, as Khalifa of the Qadiri-Rifa’i Tariqa, now known as the Ansari Sufi Order. Through gracious permission of his Shaykh, Taner Ansari, he has been ordained as a Shaykh to continue these teachings in Australia.

Rabbi Zalman Kastel

Rabbi Zalman Kastel is National Director of the Together for Humanity Foundation. He is Youth Rabbi and Hebrew School principal at Chabad House North Shore. He worked in Jewish outreach in the United States, Canada, UK, Ukraine and Australia. He was ordained as a Rabbi at Tomchei Temim Lubavitch New York and completed a Graduate Diploma in Education with the University of New England at Armidale.

In 2002, Rabbi Kastel co-founded the Goodness and Kindness campaign in schools under the auspices of Chabad House of the North Shore, initially in cooperation with Australian Federation of Islamic Councils. He worked closely with Muslim, Christian and Jewish individuals and organisations, most recently Affinity Intercultural Foundation and the Jewish Muslim Christian Association. He presented at numerous conferences on creative Jewish education, interfaith cooperation and the experience of engaging 35,000 Australian students with people with diverse beliefs and the promise of cooperation on common values.