A national award promoting religious harmony and acceptance within Australian society has been bestowed on Charles Sturt University (CSU) lecturer in theology, Associate Professor Clive Pearson. The principal of the United Theological College (UTC) in Sydney, within the CSU School of Theology, received an Australian Affinity Award in September. The award recognised Professor Pearson’s significant contributions in the study of religion, interfaith and intercultural dialogue, and the ‘facilitating' by CSU in this dialogue. Associate Professor Pearson was particularly recognised for his work on the public theology of issues of diversity in Sydney, including analysis of the riots in the Sydney suburb of Cronulla in December 2005. “The United Theological College has been working with Affinity and Sydney’s Islamic community firstly out of concern for the neighbour, for the stranger in our midst and a concern for social cohesion,” said Associate Professor Pearson. “We have attended and presented at each other's conferences because we believe that it is important for a Christian theology to be done these days in the presence of the religious other as well as the secular.”