Surrey Neighbouring Faiths Program Mid-November 2011 Newsletter

Greetings, This past Wednesday a diverse group of religious and secular community leaders gathered at the City Centre Library in Surrey to explore the possibility of forming a Surrey Interfaith Council. It was a lively session! Rebecca Tobias, a North America Trustee with the United Religions Initiative delivered the keynote address. She offered a global perspective on interfaith work, and brought it home with an inspiring call to action that emphasized the need and potential for interfaith collaboration in Surrey. Following the keynote, Deidre Goudriaan, a Regional Facilitator with BC Healthy Communities, skillfully guided the group through a dialogue process that drew out an amazing range of ideas and perspectives. By the end, the group had developed some working ideas for moving forward and agreed to meet again to further the project. Most importantly, however, friendships were started and trust was built. An embrace of gratitude goes out to EmbraceBC, the provincial funding program, and Jasleen, Poonam and the whole team from PICS, the project lead, for making this community vision come to life! Is this a project you would like to be a part of? Would you like to see something like this in your community? Let someone know. Once you begin to articulate your dream of a more compassionate and inclusive community, you will be amazed to find how many others share your vision and stand up with you. A warm welcome to anyone receiving this newsletter for the first time.

Upcoming Events
November 23 Interfaith Dialogue at Crescent United Church LAST SESSION! The Telling Our Stories Interfaith Dialogue series at Crescent United Church wraps up next Wednesday, 7:00 8:30pm. For this last session, members of four different faith communities will talk about religious festivals that are important in their community. This series has been a groundbreaking dialogue event for Surrey, so please come out and show your support! For more details, view the poster via the link at the bottom of this newsletter or contact Kathy Booth at: kathy.booth@hotmail.com November 23 Faith in the System? Faith in the System? Religious and Spiritual Visions for Community Resilience in a time of Economic Instability. Dignity. Mercy. Love. Compassion. How do these values impact our local economies? How do they equip us to respond to rising prices, unemployment and a widening income gap? Join SFU Semester in Dialogue students for an afternoon of conversation and contemplation to explore creative visions for supportive and thriving communities. A light lunch will be served. All of our food is from local businesses in the community and is vegetarian, fair trade and organic. The event takes place Wednesday, November 23, 11:30 4pm at Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street, Vancouver. Visit the website for more information and to register.

November 24 Presentation to Surreys Social Planning Advisory Committee The Surrey Neighbouring Faiths Program will be presenting the documentary and Toolkit to Surreys Social Planning Advisory Committee on November 24. It is great privilege to be able to share the project with this important municipal committee. Wish us luck! November 27 Multifaith Social at Guru Nanak Gurdwara You are invited to an upcoming Multifaith Social with the Sikh community at Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara. It's a great opportunity to connect with local Sikhs, tour the Gurdwara, spend some time in the Darbaar Hall (the Sanctuary) and enjoy the communal meal of Langar. The social takes place Sunday, November 27, 3:00pm to 5:00pm at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, 7050 120 Street, Surrey. The event is free. For more information and to RSVP please contact Marcus at 604-321-1302 or admin@multifaithaction.org December 4 Community Interfaith Series: Ian Bushfield on Humanism What is the role of non-theistic and atheistic worldviews within interfaith dialogue? Ever wanted to find out more about Humanism? Now is your chance! Speaker Ian Bushfield is the President of the BC Humanist Association. This is the third service of the Community Interfaith Series at the South Fraser Unitarian Congregation. The service starts at 10:30am at the Newton Seniors Centre. December 10 Focus Group meeting for Multicultural Mural Project The Multicultural Mural Community Project aims to establish a mural which represents Surreys cultural, ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity through the collaboration of community members. The project participants will develop the mural design to reflect their views of a welcoming and inclusive community through focus group sessions and a workshop. The first focus group meeting will take place on December 10. Please let David Dalley know if you are interested in connecting with this project. December 10 Public Services Expo 2011 The Surrey Neighbouring Faiths Program will have a booth at the Surrey Public Services Expo on December 10, 1:00 4:00pm at the Surrey City Centre Library. The Expo will provide an opportunity for service providers from the federal and provincial governments, community organizations and non-profit agencies to present information about their programmes and services. Please let David Dalley know if you are interested in helping out at the information booth. We hope to see you there! December 21 Soulstice: An Interfaith Dance Party There are some interfaith visionaries in our community planning and interfaith dance party: A multi-sensory spiritual dance evening, with singers from different faith and musical traditions improvising simple chants on various themes... Nothing is confirmed yet, but you might want to save the date! Please let David Dalley know if you are interested in learning more about this event.

Opportunities to Connect

Surrey Interfaith Council A range of religious and secular community leaders have embarked on a dialogue process to explore the formation of a Surrey Interfaith Council. The dialogue process will continue on into the spring of 2012, and will define the

ultimate mandate and direction of the Council. At his point, participants are gathering under the general vision of creating and maintaining a positive climate for religious diversity in Surrey. Please let David Dalley know if you are interested in connecting with this project. Early Years Workshops The SNFP offers an educational outreach workshop titled Honouring the Religious and Spiritual Identities of Children in Early Childhood Education. It is 2 to 4 hours long, and is geared towards preschool and early elementary school teachers. The purpose of this workshop is to explore spirituality and religion as important components of the whole child in the education of young children. Please let David Dalley know if you are interested in observing this workshop or training to become a presenter.

Ongoing Events

Community Sweat Lodge and Drum Circle The Cwenengitel Aboriginal Society hosts community sweat lodges and drum circles. The drum circles take place every Thursday evening at 6:30pm, the sweat lodges take place every second Saturday starting at 10:30am. The next sweats are November 5 & 19. There are separate lodges for men and women. Men must wear shorts, and women must wear a long skirt or gown to the ankles. The events are open to people from all faith traditions. For more information, please contact Wally LaVigne at wally@cwenabso.org or (604) 588-5561 October 2011 June 2012 Interfaith Speakers Series The South Fraser Unitarian Congregation in Surrey is hosting a 1st Sunday Community Interfaith Series that will run from October 2011 to June 2012. Speakers will reflect on the following theme: We live together in diverse communities. As individuals, we draw on our belief systems to guide the ways we think and act. Our belief systems shape how we relate to one another and how we come together as a community. What are some of the core values and practices of your faith tradition? How do they shape and strengthen your faith community? How might the wisdom of your faith tradition help us to live and flourish in our diverse community? We will hear perspectives from the following worldviews: Hinduism, Paganism, Humanism, Islam, Kabir Panth, Sikhism, Christianity and Bahai. For more information, please contact info@sfuc.bc.ca. November 1 to January 31 The Faith of our Neighbours Join Northwood United Church for an 11 week education series which will explore the many and varied faith traditions practiced in our neighborhood. Led by Rev. Will Sparks and Sid Bentley, world religions educator, sessions at the church will be interspersed with out trips to places of prayer in our community. The series takes place Tuesday evenings at 7:00pm. For more details and to register, contact the church office at (604) 581-8454.

Further down the road...

February 4, 2012 Workshop at Children the Heart of the Matter Conference The Surrey Neighbouring Faiths Program will be presenting a workshop to early childhood educators at the Children the Heart of the Matter conference in Surrey. Visit the website for more information and to register.

May 10-11, 2012 Workshop at 2012 Cities Fit for Children Provincial Summit The 3rd Annual Cities Fit for Children Provincial Summit is dedicated to the sustainable development of our cities and urban and rural areas. The event will bring together local, municipal and regional leaders involved in policy decisions and designing and building healthy safe communities for children and families. Come and hear how multifaith networks can play an important role in this process.

Keep in touch...

What 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