Surrey Neighbouring Faiths Program Mid-February 2013 Newsletter

Greetings, The Lower Mainland has been bustling with interfaith activities this month. The Seeds of Harmony event in Richmond launched World Interfaith Harmony Week in the Lower Mainland. This was followed the next evening with an interfaith dialogue in Abbotsford and then by our very successful Interfaith Peacemakers event here in Surrey! The Surrey Interfaith Peacemakers event opened with the Archbishop Carney Secondary School Chamber Choir. The performance was followed by a dialogue session on the topic of peace with leaders from six different faith traditions. The evening closed with a satsang and meditation lead by the Art of Living community. We received an abundance of positive feedback. The only complaint was that there was not enough time for conversation afterwards. Sounds like we need to do it again! There are two very important interfaith events coming up in the next few weeks here in Surrey. On February 20 the second session of the Multifaith Action Societys popular Power of Spirit program takes place in Surrey. This is a great opportunity to learn about Hinduism and Unitarianism and to connect and build relationships with people of all faiths that will be in attendance. A word of warning: they almost ran out of chairs at the last event, so get there early! On February 27, the Multifaith Centre at Kwantlen Polytechnic University is having an open house at the Surrey Campus. This is an important time for members from all faith communities to come out, learn about this cutting-edge program, find ways to support it and be supported! Details and posters for both of these events can be found below. The good news is that interfaith activity is experiencing a massive growth in popularity and accessibility here in Surrey. The bad news is that it is outpacing some of the communication infrastructure we have in place. That includes this newsletter. Over the coming weeks I will be migrating this mailing list over to another email distribution system that will allow for more flexibility and growth. Please read below for more details and let me know if you would like to be part of this process. A warm welcome to anyone receiving this newsletter for the first time.

Upcoming Events
TODAY! February 16 - Founders and Faith Traditions course starts in Surrey See below for details February 20 - Second Session of The Power of Spirit The second session of The Power of Spirit: A Multifaith Exploration of Triumph over Adversity takes place Wednesday, February 20, 6:30pm at the Laxmi Narayan Mandir, 8321-140th Street, Surrey. It will feature speakers from the Hindu and Unitarian traditions. This Multifaith Action Society project is a community engagement project that brings diverse spiritual and cultural communities together on an ongoing basis in order to:

1. Explore the various ways that their spiritual beliefs have helped them to overcome adversity and persecution throughout history and into the modern era, providing groups facing similar situations today with the tools and lessons needed to address intercultural conflict. 2. Inform and educate one another about faith and culture through constructive dialogue and meaningful group interactions. 3. Establish and develop intercultural relationships with the intention of forming collaborative partnerships addressing racism and hatred in our neighbourhoods and communities. See attached poster for details or contact Marcus at 604-321-1302. February 22, 7:00 8:30pm Surrey Interfaith Contemplative Group (Continuing every Friday!) The Surrey Interfaith Contemplative Group is a gathering of individuals from different religious, spiritual and philosophical backgrounds that meet every Friday evening to meditate, build community and deepen relationships. For more information join the Facebook group or contact David Dalley to be added to the mailing list. All are welcome! February 28 Kwantlen Multifaith Centre Open House The Kwantlen Multifaith Centre will be hosting an open house on Thursday, February 28, 6-8pm, at the Surrey Campus Conference Centre. Learn more about the Universitys growing Multifaith Centre and how to get involved. For more information of to RSVP, please contact multifaith@kwantlen.ca. See invitation below. March 1, 7:00 8:30pm Surrey Interfaith Contemplative Group (Continuing every Friday!) The Surrey Interfaith Contemplative Group is a gathering of individuals from different religious, spiritual and philosophical backgrounds that meet every Friday evening to meditate, build community and deepen relationships. For more information join the Facebook group or contact David Dalley to be added to the mailing list. All are welcome! March 8, 7:00 8:30pm Surrey Interfaith Contemplative Group (Continuing every Friday!) The Surrey Interfaith Contemplative Group is a gathering of individuals from different religious, spiritual and philosophical backgrounds that meet every Friday evening to meditate, build community and deepen relationships. For more information join the Facebook group or contact David Dalley to be added to the mailing list. All are welcome! March 15, 7:00 8:30pm Surrey Interfaith Contemplative Group (Continuing every Friday!) The Surrey Interfaith Contemplative Group is a gathering of individuals from different religious, spiritual and philosophical backgrounds that meet every Friday evening to meditate, build community and deepen relationships. For more information join the Facebook group or contact David Dalley to be added to the mailing list. All are welcome! March 27: Third Session of The Power of Spirit The third session of The Power of Spirit: A Multifaith Exploration of Triumph over Adversity takes place Wednesday, March 27, 6:30pm at the Church of Scientology of Vancouver, 401 West Hastings Street, Vancouver. Details to follow.

Share Your Voice

Interfaith Documentary Play Do you have a story to tell? Someone wants to hear it! If you would be willing to share stories about your experiences with interfaith encounters, playwright Amanda Aikman would love to talk to you. Amanda is doing research for a stage play that will be based entirely on the experiences of local folks from all religions. If you have a story to tell, no matter how simple, of times that you have met with acceptance or rejection, understanding or prejudice or of how you or others have changed your opinions as a result of meeting people from different faiths or things you wish others knew about your faith -- please contact Amanda to set up a time to chat. Or if you know someone who has a good story, please ask them to be in touch with Amanda. Everyone who shares stories will be absolutely anonymous. If she uses your story, Amanda will change your name. Amanda is a Unitarian minister and an experienced playwright who specialises in creating plays in community for those whose voices are unheard. Please contact her at: revaikman@gmail.com by February 15. Thank you! First Ever City of Surrey Community Summit In April 2013, The City of Surrey will host its first ever Community Summit. The event will include the Mayor, Councillors and the senior management team representing all departments at City Hall. The event will provide an opportunity for the City to engage, consult, and share information about important initiatives. Residents will be able to give feedback and learn how they can participate in civic processes. Wouldnt this be a great opportunity to raise the profile of interfaith activity in Surrey? Building Interfaith Bridges in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows The Family Education and Support Centre in Maple Ridge is embarking on an interfaith project called Building Interfaith Bridges. The project involves a series of interfaith dialogues and tours to various house of worship in the community. If you know of anyone in the Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows or Katzie First Nations communities that might be interested in supporting this project, please have them contact David Dalley. Founders and Faith Traditions with Harold Rosen This course offers a brief but useful and stimulating survey of four historychanging missions, and the faith traditions they generated. We introduce the field of comparative religions, providing an overview of Moses, the Torah and the Jewish saga across the ages. In parallel fashion, we address Zoroaster, the Gathas and Persian civilization; Jesus, the Gospel and Christian civilization; as well as Muhammad, the Quran and Islamic civilization. We will find many patterns linking these traditions, as well as enriching complementarities all expanding our worldviews and our appreciation of humanitys journey across the ages. The instructor, Harold Rosen, has Masters Degrees in Religion, Philosophy & Education. The course runs 1:30pm to 3:20pm, 6 Saturdays Feb16, 23, Mar 2, 9, 16, 23 at the Surrey City Centre Library, 10350 University Drive. Register at csreg@sfu.ca or (778)782-8000.

Growing the Spirit (Electronically!)

Six years ago this Yahoo group started as an informal mechanism for information sharing between a small group of people from different faith traditions in Surrey. It now goes out to over 400 people in Surrey, the Lower Mainland, across the country and even to other interfaith organizations around the world. Whats more, the number of interfaith programs in Surrey has grown and each program has different needs in terms of its communications infrastructure. The bottom line is that interfaith in Surrey has outgrown this communications system and it is time to build something new. This is a good problem to have! In the coming weeks, I will be migrating and amalgamating multiple email lists into an online mailing service known as MailChimp. This service allows for easy management of multiple mailing lists and has an unlimited capacity for growth. It also allows for different people to manage different lists and has some nice features that will make outreach more efficient and effective. Importantly, it gives more flexibility to subscribers (thats you!) by allowing subscribers to have more control over the types of mailings they receive. Altogether, this new service will allow us to be more efficient and effective in supporting the growth of new programs and emerging leadership within the local interfaith movement. I welcome your input in this process. If anyone is interested in working directly with me on this, please let me know! We will need a new banner picture for the newsletter. I have attached below a beautiful picture by local photographer Tim Shields that was taken in the White Rock/South Surrey area. The image is governed by a Creative Commons license, meaning that it is free to be used for non-commercial applications such as this. Artistically, the image of the rays of sun over multicoloured and beautifully polished rocks extends nicely into a metaphor for interfaith work. I welcome your feedback on this image, and invite you to submit other suggestions if you have any. I will be connecting with other interfaith leaders over the coming weeks to invite input on this process, but again, I welcome input from anyone.

Keep in touch...

Want to learn more about the Surrey Neighbouring Faiths Program? Visit our website, watch our documentary, or look through past editions of this newsletter. Want to stay connected? Sign up to receive this monthly newsletter or join our Facebook group. This newsletter contains links to other events and resources in the community. Unless you are receiving this newsletter directly, some of the links may be disabled. To receive this newsletter directly, sign up at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/surreyneighbouringfaiths/. Our Mission Statement is: The Surrey Neighbouring Faiths Program builds community capacity for multifaith learning and dialogue with a focus on children and families. If you have any programming or project ideas that relate to this mission statement, please let me know. We are always open to new ideas! In peace, David Dalley

(604) 502-8661 davidanderin@dalley.ca Comforted by how much we share, were able to delight in our differences. - Raffi, from A Covenant for Honouring Children