FOLLOW US
Monthly Interfaith Prayer Breakfast in Montreal
Written by UPF - Canada
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
UPF Montreal held its monthly Interfaith Breakfast on Wednesday March 18, 2009.
This is the eighth year of regular monthly meetings of English and Bilingual (French and English) meetings. Last year a regular meeting held exclusively in French was initiated by several of our francophone Ambassadors for Peace, Danielle Delorimier, Marc & Isabelle Laurin and Pere Pierre Martel. It is held on the first Monday evening of each month.
At the March 18 meeting, 25 participants gathered, among which were veteran Ambassadors for Peace of Roman Catholic, Anglican, United, Seventh Day Adventist, Pentecostal, to name a few, as well as representatives of the Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Scientologist, Unificationist and other faiths were in attendance. There were also academics, educators and peace activists among the participants. This morning three new Ambassadors for Peace were appointed: Mr. Mohammad Rahman and Mr. Nizam Uddin of the Islamic faith and Professor Bhandari, a Sikh scholar. The Theme was “Interreligious Cooperation.”
The meeting followed the following format: Each participant briefly introduced themselves and shared a few words.
Franco Famularo gave a presentation on “Interreligious Cooperation” and the vision of UPF’s founder. A discussion among the participants followed. The discussion was quite lively. Announcements of upcoming activities in the various communities. A closing prayer was offered by a member of the clergy. Some remained and continued discussion and networking till much later.
Our purpose is to bring people together. Through education and networking, the participants have begun developing peace activities in their own communities. UPF’s purpose is to support with ideas and examples from our world-wide UPF network. To be meaningful, the activities are developed locally. Therefore, we encourage each participant to develop UPF activities in their own communities.
One pastor, Rev. Samuel K. has developed an interreligious dialogue between Jews, Christians and Muslims. A meeting will be held on March 30th in his church.
Muslims are inviting Christian clergy to speak in their mosques, and conversely Christian clergy invite Muslims to speak in their churches. There is a definite sense of community developing among the regular participants.
Needless to say, credibility and trust develops over time. This is not an easy task when the participants come from many different backgrounds and represent cultures that have such deep roots.
Thanks go to Serge and Melissa Brosseau, Mari Sasaki and Robert Duffy who over the years have consistently and faithfully continued this important effort to build a network of Ambassadors for Peace.
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