Montreal, Canada - In support of World Interfaith Harmony Week, UPF-Montreal gathered on the evening of January 28. After some reflections and comments about the worldwide promotion of Interfaith Harmony Week and some explanation on the purpose of the UN initiative to encourage dialogue and interfaith cooperation, Mr. Anthony Mansour, of the Orthodox Church in Montreal and former President of the Canadian Center for Ecumenism, gave a presentation on pluralism.
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He succinctly explained issues that challenge harmony among the world's faiths, such as:
- Exclusivism: Believers stress that their religion is the only true religion,
- Inclusivism: All religions contain partial truth but one contains it all
- Syncretism: Different religions have different parts of the Truth
- Pluralism: Recognizing that there can be different legitimate paths to one God
This was followed by an interactive session where the mult-religious group that included a rabbi, clergy, and laymen from several denominations of Christianity and Unificationists, engaged in a mini-dialogue and addressed the following topics:
- Please share what you love about your own faith.
- What perceptions do you have of someone of that faith (perhaps of someone you have known, or about what you have heard of that religion locally or internationally).
- Please share ways your own faith has been enriched and/or challenged by what you have seen in the that other religion.
- Ask questions regarding each other’s religions until you have identified several things that your religions have in common.
The evening concluded with testimonials and fellowship.
See also photos of other World Interfaith Harmony Week 2013 events.