On Tuesday (26/08), New Zealand Ambassador, HE Philip Gibson, came to CRCS. The visit from the New Zealand Ambassador is served the purpose of giving a symbolic grant to the religious and Cross-cultural studies library. The grant aims to buy books and to develop the library. The amount of the grant is NZ$25,000.

In his welcoming speech, executive director of CRCS, Dr. Zainal Abidin Bagir said that since two years ago, CRCS and NZAID had worked together and engaged in several programs. The first program was a visit from of Dr. Simon Rae from University of Otago, New Zealand to teach at CRCS. This semester, Dr. Simon Rae will teach Religion, State and Civil Society. Dr. Simon Rae came to CRCS together with his wife, Marion.

“We actually have several programs together with NZAID starting three years ago. The first program was Prof. Simon Rae’s visit to UGM last year and he continued to teach here for one semester”.

The second program is the curriculum development program which emphasizes the cluster of interreligious dialogue at CRCS. The program is still running and will finish at the and of this year.

As a part of the curriculum development, CRCS did small research on practices of interfaith dialogue in Indonesia at several levels. And very recently the program at CRCS received a grant of NZ$25,000 from NZAID to develop the CRCS library.

Furthermore Dr. Zainal Abidin Bagir said that eventhough the library of religious and cross-cultural studies which was established two years after the establishment of CRCS is small, the library is growing fast. Therefore, the library needs a larger place to accommodate its books. Today, the Graduate School of Gadjah Mada University is considering giving a larger place to the religious and cross-cultural studies library. The library not only useful for master students (CRCS), but also for PhD students (ICRS) and other students from some universities at Yogyakarta and outside Yogyakarta. In the last part of his speech, Dr Zainal Abidin Bagir said “Hopefully this is good momentum to build the library further of religious studies at Gadjah Mada University’.

In this occasion, Philip Gibson said that this grant continues work which was initiated by the New Zealand Prime Minister, Helen Clark, who visited Gadjah Mada University on 20 July 2007. Gibson stated that this work together is reflected in the social relationship between New Zealand and the Indonesian government. He hoped the grant would be useful to develop the religious and cross cultural studies library.

After speaking, Philip Gibson gave NZ$25,000 to the executive Director of CRCS, Dr. Zainal Abidin Bagir, and Prof Dr Ir Edhi Martono, vice director of Academics of the Graduate School of Gadjah Mada University.

Before finishing their visit, Philip Gibson and NZAID executive director, Dr. Peter Adams, visited the CRCS and ICRS offices and the religious and cross cultural studies library which stands on the fourth floor of the Graduate School of Gadjah Mada University.