Victorian interfaith school program Building Bridges axed [Video]

A long-running Melbourne program bringing together secondary students from Muslim, Jewish and Christian schools has closed due to a lack of funding and community tensions over the war in the Gaza.

The Building Bridges school interfaith program started in the aftermath of the September 11 terror attacks and brought together year 10 and 11 students for a chat and pizza.

“These kids end up with friendships out of it,” said John Rogerson, chairman of the WellSpring Centre, a Christian organisation that ran Building Bridges until this year.

“We had one kid get up and say, ‘I never appreciated that people from other religions would have an AFL team they support’,” he said.

“It tells you what happens when we get out …