North American Interfaith Network (NAIN) is the oldest volunteer-based interfaith network in North America. NAIN celebrated its 30-year journey of building interfaith relationships at it’s annual con- ference, July 31–Aug. 3, at MacEwan University, Edmonton.
There were opportunities to tour Edmonton as a historic meeting place of Indigenous Peoples, to visit the largest expanse of urban parkland in Canada and to explore the University of Alberta Botanic Garden.
Highlights of the conference included inspiring and diverse speakers, workshops and discussions to stimulate mind, body and spirit.
In keeping with our distinct Canadian identity as treaty people, the conference included an Aboriginal focus. There was a Kairos blanket exercise, followed by a bannock and stew evening meal and a plenary address by Marie Wilson, commissioner,Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), and Stephen Kakfwi, a residential school survivor and former premier of the Northwest Territories. Both focused on Pilgrimage as a Healing Journey: the long journey back home.
Wilson talked about her healing after seven years as a TRC commissioner. She went on a pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago in Spain to integrate her experi- ences and left a heart-shaped stone at the iron cross of the Camino for the 4,000-plus children who died in residential schools.
Kakfwi sang several songs he com- posed about having to go through the dark- ness in order to experience the light of healing.
Roméo Dallaire, commander of theUnited Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, noted the need for deep faith to foster courage and conviction in the face of a complex world where political, social and ethical values are not enough.
Dallaire spoke candidly about his own journey. He talked about his Roman Catholic roots, his anger at God after the Rwandan genocide, and his gradual return to faith recently.
Rev. Dr. Robert Sellers, chair of the board of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, presented Journey to Becomewith the message that we are all human “becomings.” He wove together an understanding of pilgrimage based on words by Walter Brueggemann, Philip Sheldrake, Sam Keen and Parker Palmer, and shared his own narrative of living his faith according to his adopted motto, “unity in diversity.”
Workshop and learning events included such diverse topics as The Terror That Lives in the Home: the pivotal role faith communities can play in supporting victims of domestic violence and A Journey Towards Understanding the“Other”: the Christian-Muslim dialogue experience in Edmonton.
In Pilgrim’s Journey to the Infinite: experiences in meditation, participants were led through a series of guided meditations from various faith traditions including Buddhist, Sufi and Christian contemplative prayer.
One of the conference tours included a visit to four different places of worship in South Edmonton: the Sai Baba Centre, a Muslim mosque, a Hindu cultural centre and a Sikh gurdwara.
Our last stop was the Sikh Temple on Millwoods Road East. I had lived next door to this for 11 years and had never been inside. We arrived at the temple while worship was in progress, but we were made very welcome and gifted with a vegetarian supper.
I learned that the Sikh Temple has worship seven days of the week, and that the same meal is provided to people who come every day because no one ought to have to come to prayer hungry. The gracious hospitality there was incredibly generous and moving.
The conference concluded with a dance by two Hindu women. Then a rather moving exercise of forming a human circle gradually wound into a double circle in such a way that we all got to greet each other as we followed the person in front of us and said to everyone, individually, “Blessings on your journey.”
It was a privilege to attend the conference in my role as our synod’s ecumen- ical officer north. I was indeed blessed by this journey through the NAIN conference and this interfaith experience.
—Faith Nostbakken
Loading ...