When Emelia Haskey walks into the United Nations Conference Centre in Bangkok next month, she will carry with her the prayers, hopes and convictions of her Uniting Church community. Emelia has been selected to take part in the Fifth Global Peace Summit, an international gathering of around 400 emerging leaders from over 40 countries, all committed to the challenging and urgent work of peacebuilding.

For Emelia, the invitation is both an honour and a natural progression in her calling. As the Youth Worker at Brougham Place Uniting Church, she has spent almost three years walking alongside teenagers, nurturing faith, asking big questions, and encouraging them to live out the gospel in practical ways. In step with her ministry role, Emelia has been studying for her Bachelor of Ministry at Uniting College. When completed, it will be her second degree, following a Bachelor of Media with a major in Journalism that led her to earlier work in the Synod of South Australia’s communications office.

“The teaching at college has been incredible,” Emelia reflects. “Not just academically strong but deeply relational. I’ve been able to build real mentoring relationships with lecturers like Dr Rosemary Dewerse.”

It was Dr Dewerse, Academic Dean of Uniting College, who first alerted Emelia to the Global Peace Summit. Invited to nominate student delegates, she encouraged Emelia to apply.

The Global Peace Summit is designed for young leaders who are passionate about peace, diplomacy and social change. While affiliated with the United Nations framework, it is organised by Humanitarian Affairs Asia, an organisation founded in the wake of the September 11 attacks to empower young people to serve their communities and build a more peaceful world. Participants take part in leadership training, workshops and dialogue with world leaders and activists, and are commissioned as Humanitarian Affairs Peace Ambassadors for a year, committed to put their learning into action back home.

Emelia’s application asked big questions: How do you define peace? How can you promote peacebuilding? What do you hope to achieve as a Peace Ambassador? Her responses drew deeply on both her faith and her lived experience. She spoke about the growing political and cultural divides that challenge Christian unity, weaken public advocacy against violence, and undermine solidarity with First Nations peoples and other vulnerable communities. For Emelia, peacebuilding is not about quiet agreement or avoiding conflict, but about courageous relationship-building across differences.

“I’m really interested in creating spaces for conversation that go beyond partisan politics or religious and racial divides,” she says. “I want to help build networks of young people – especially young adult Christians – who feel called to justice work, who will advocate, fundraise, and speak publicly for peace. Working for a peaceful world doesn’t mean doing it quietly.”

Her conviction has deep roots. Emelia traces her passion for justice back to her schooling at St Dominic’s Priory College, where Dominican nuns emphasised living out Christ’s call to love, service and justice. Learning about influential Catholic figures such as Dorothy Day and Oscar Romero, and hearing directly from organisations like the Red Cross during the Syrian refugee crisis, has shaped her understanding of the gospel as something active and demanding. As a young adult, she found a spiritual home in the Uniting Church, drawn by its public witness – marching for children in detention, speaking out on climate justice, and standing alongside vulnerable communities.

Emelia expects the Global Peace Summit to be both confronting and inspiring. The program will include addresses from peace educators, humanitarian leaders, and people with lived experience of profound violence and loss: genocide survivors from Cambodia and Rwanda, a volunteer medic in the Ukraine, a child born of the Bosnian war, and peace activists who have chosen forgiveness and reconciliation over revenge. Sessions such as ‘Forgiveness as a Path to Peace’ and ‘A Manifesto for a Kinder World’ will challenge attendees to think deeply about what peace looks like in practice.

For Emelia, one of the most anticipated aspects is the opportunity for intercultural and interfaith encounter. “It’s not a religious event,” she admits, “but it’s very much a pro-ecumenical and interfaith space. We need that now more than ever. We don’t have the luxury of living in our own bubbles. Standing in solidarity with our Jewish, Muslim, Hindu and other siblings is essential if we are serious about peace.”

As she prepares for the journey, Emelia is deeply grateful for the support she has received. Funding from Uniting Church Fellowship and Mission Support (UC FAMS) and Christ Church Wayville has made her participation possible, and she hopes her experience will encourage other parts of the Uniting Church to invest in emerging leaders. “These opportunities are life-shaping,” she says. “They equip young people to bring new skills, global perspectives, and renewed courage back into their communities.”

As Emelia prepares for Bangkok, her journey is a reminder that peace is not an abstract idea, but a calling lived out through relationship, courage, and commitment. In supporting her, may we as a church be renewed to follow Jesus with an outward focus—grounded in love, justice, reconciliation and peace.

Emelia pictured at the President's Conference in November. From left, with fellow delegates including the Assembly's National Consultant Rev Sunny Chen; taking part in traditional Tongan weaving; and meeting Tonga's Prime Minister Dr 'Aisake Eke.