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FROM THE
PUBLISHERS CORNER
I
am always feeling like a stranger in a strange land when
I sit and watch the ways of nature. How did these birds
choose this nest? How do they know how to find food in
the surrounding trees? And do they share some
communication beyond my recognition in order to
alternate their arrivals at the small home that houses
their precious chicks?
We
will also hear from Mishach McNichols, a youth who has moved from the place of being
homeless to the reality of being a Student in the Police
Foundations Course.
Faith
Connections invites young adults (18-39) to join us for
a refreshing eco-friendly morning of clean air,
beautiful spaces and good company! We'll be hiking at
the renovated 
Two
lectures by 
Sunday,
June 19, 2025 from 3:00 pm-10:00 pm
553
Queen Street West
with: Geshe
Michael Roach
An
opportunity to collectively explore inclusive education
in universal spirituality for the integration of
humanity both locally and globally:
peace
activist and environmentalist, who addresses
contemporary issues and teaches how we can engage our
spiritual practice in the world. From August 8-13,
Thich Nhat Hanh will be presenting a residential
mindfulness retreat at UBC. There is a childrens
program as well, so the kids will be taken care of while
parents participate in the retreat. On August 14, he
will be giving a public talk at the Orpheum theatre.
Both events are open to people of all backgrounds, faith
traditions, and levels of experience. Thich Nhat
Hanhs visit to 
Friday
and Saturday, October 28 29, 2011
This
years conference will feature talks by Regional Chief
Angus Toulouse, of the Chiefs of ESSAY
MUSLIM
WOMEN ARE AT THE CROSSROADS
- between freedom and oppression
Women's
rights is one of the key aspects in the fight back against
Islamism - but are they being empowered enough?
Raheel
Raza writing in The Commentator - Thursday 02 June 2025 12:36:00
Muslim
women are at the crossroads - between freedom and
oppression A UN Arab Human Development Report called
'Towards the Rise of Women in the Arab World, ' points out
that an Arab renaissance cannot and will not be
accomplished unless the obstacles preventing women from
enjoying their human rights and contributing more fully to
development are eliminated and replaced with greater
access to the tools of development. Today, six
years down the road an appalling lack of human rights and
development are manifest in many stories related to Muslim
women, not just...
READ
THE FULL STORY
Chil
dren of Abraham
That you may know one another..
The
International Conference of Christians and Jews in
Istanbul
last June brought together people of Jewish, Christian,
and Muslim faith traditions engaged in interreligious
dialogue
By Sr. Lucy Thorson, NDS
- March/April 201
Last
summer, Sr. Lucy Thorson NDS, of the Scarboro Missions
Interfaith Department, attended the annual conference of
the International Conference of Christians and Jews (ICCJ)
which took place in
Muslims were also invited to participate and present
at the conference.
CLICK
HERE TO Read
Lucy Thorson's report on the gathering
ONLINE INTERFAITH MEDIA:
ODYSSEY NETWORKS JOURNEY
by
Rev. Eric C. Shafer
Odyssey Networks
It was 1987 and
Fast forward to
2011: Today the media is not plagued by scandal but
fueled by it. Controversy sells. In
religion this means an emphasis on conflict rather than
cohesion, strife rather than working together.
Click
here to read the full article...
NEWS
U.N.
COMMISSION DISCUSSES ETHICS BEHIND
THE
ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS
New
York
That
was among the perspectives under discussion at this
year's UN Commission on Sustainable Development, held
from 213 May.
"We
have passed beyond the global tipping point that we have
been anticipating for decades," Jeffrey Sachs
director of the Earth Institute and a special adviser to
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Commission
on 11 May.
A
panel discussion also held on 11 May and sponsored
by the Baha'i International Community sought to
explore ways in which cultural, educational, and
spiritual components can be brought into the sustainable
development discourse.
Titled "Making the Invisible Visible: Values and
the Transition to Sustainable Consumption and
Production", the panel was moderated by Duncan
Hanks of the Canadian Baha'i International Development
Agency.
panellistsoffered thoughts about ways that the
consideration of values can be brought into discussions
about sustainable consumption and production, in order
to motivate the changes in human behaviour needed to
sustain life on the planet.
CLICK
TO READ THE FULL STORY
Claremont School of Theology
$50 MILLION GIFT CREATES INTERFAITH SCHOOL
FOR CLERGY
By Ryan E. Smith for
Jewish Journal.com
May 16, 2025
Three regional religious institutions
are taking the next big step in a unique partnership to
teach Christian, Jewish and Muslim spiritual leaders,
thanks to a historic $50 million gift.
Claremont School of Theology on Monday
announced the donation from philanthropists David and
Joan Lincoln 
the largest in the schools history which will
establish
The seeds of the project were made
public last year with the announcement that the
Joan and I are particularly pleased
with the idea of creating a multi-faith university that
reflects the power and potential of the Golden
Rule, which the many faith communities have in
common, David Lincoln, a member of the Claremont
board of trustees, said in a statement.
We believe the outcome of this kind
of education will be tolerance and respect among
religions and the ability to better address global
problems where religious cooperation and cooperating are
needed to reach solutions and repair the world.
CLICK
TO READ THE FULL STORY
NEWS
- New York/Paris
U.N.
LAUNCHES FACEBOOK CAMPAIGN TO DO ONE
THING FOR DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
New
York/Paris, May 19, 2025 To mark the UN World Day for Cultural Diversity, UNESCO
and the UN Alliance of 
Civilizations
(UNAOC) are launching a global campaign to create a
grassroots movement of people who advocate for
diversity. The campaign calls on individuals to take one
action relevant to their lives that promotes diversity
and inclusion--from experiencing another culture through
film, food, or museums, to learning about other cultures
or countries, or dedicating time to volunteer for that
cause.
The campaign, Do ONE Thing for Diversity and
Inclusion, will work via a dedicated Facebook
page, serving as a platform for people around the
world to share their experiences through posts and
videos. The campaign has already won the support and
participation of several major corporations from
New technologies have fundamentally changed the way
we communicate and get to know each other, said
UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova. What better way
to celebrate diversity and inclusion than by using
Facebook, Twitter and all of the new social networks
that are breaking through barriers and connecting people
everywhere especially the young, who are
clearly todays drivers of change.
Along with the corporate partners, hundreds of NGOs and
foundations are also joining the campaign, that brings
alive the values enshrined in UNESCOs Universal
Declaration on Cultural Diversity and which will
culminate at the occasion of the Alliance of
Civilizations Fourth Annual Forum in Doha, Qatar on
December 11-13, 2011, where the campaign will show
global public support for cultural diversity and
inclusion to world leaders.
CLICK
FOR MORE INFORMATION
NEWS
GOLDEN
AGE FOR CHRISTIAN-JEWISH RELATIONS:
Centre
for Christian-Jewish Learning promotes interreligious
dialogue, research
By
Ed Hayward The Chronicle (
Source: The
Boston College Chronicle, 4-28-11
BCs Center
for Christian-Jewish Learning, which Fr. Bernauer
directs, is playing a key role in the growing dialogue 
and
body of scholarship in this area of study that draws on
experts from multiple academic disciplines.
Celebrating its 10th anniversary year, the center has
sponsored numerous events that have brought scholars from
across the globe to campus to examine some of the most
pressing issues in the field of Jewish-Christian relations
including last months conference Are Jews and
Christians Living in a Post-Polemical World? Toward a
Comparison of Medieval and Modern Christian-Jewish
Encounters. An endowed visiting professorship has
brought leading scholars to BC to teach, research and
collaborate with their peers.
We are becoming a real center for scholarly
analysis, said Fr. Bernauer. What we are aiming for
now is to combine both service to students with our
service to the broader scholarly world.
Through a series of new projects, the center has
incorporated additional opportunities for graduate and
undergraduate students to participate in center activities
and learn from leading scholars.
Fr. Bernauer says it is crucial for the field to encourage
young students and scholars, lest this Golden Age succumb
to a challenge posed by shifting demographics: many of the
scholars who have led the field since the end of World War
II are nearing their golden years.
This is a veteran group of scholars engaged in
understanding and encouraging Christian-Jewish
dialogue, says Bernauer. They have come out of the
post-Holocaust and post-Vatican II eras. One of the real
challenges is to pass this dialogue down to the younger
generation.
CLICK
TO READ THE FULL STORY
INSPIRATION
What
is serious to men is often very trivial in the sight of
God. What in God might appear to us as
"play" is perhaps what He Himself takes most
seriously. At any rate the Lord plays and diverts
Himself in the garden of His creation, and if we could let
go of our own obsession with what we think is the meaning
of it all, we might be able to hear His call and follow
Him in His mysterious, cosmic dance. We do not have
to go very far to catch echoes of that game, and of that
dancing. When we are alone on a starlit night; when
by change we see the migrating birds in autumn descending
on a grove of junipers to rest and eat; when we see
children in a moment when they are really children; when
we know love in our own hearts; or when, like the Japanese
poet Basho we hear an old frog land in a quiet pond with a
solitary splash - at such times the awakening, the turning
inside out of all values, the "newness," the
emptiness and the purity of vision that make themselves
evident, provide a glimpse of the cosmic dance.
Thomas
Merton
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