Interfaith Ottawa This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. Ottawa Citizen

   www.urantia-ottawa.ca/OttawaCi - [Cached]

   Published on: 4/29/2004   Last Visited: 6/15/2006

   Ottawa's religious leaders marvel about the unprecedented level of religious co-operation in this city, Bob Harvey writes.
   ...
   Pandit Madhu Sahasrabudhe has been involved in interfaith activities in Ottawa for more than 40 years. Two others who have played an important part in developing the city's interfaith initiatives include the Very Rev. Shane Parker, above, and Archbishop Marcel Gervais.
   
   Ottawa is rapidly becoming the interfaith capital of Canada and, perhaps, the world.
   
   "We in Canada are unique, particularly in Ottawa," says Pandit Madhu Sahasrabudhe, of Ottawa's Hindu Temple.
   
   Among the initiatives unique to Ottawa are the Capital Region Interfaith Council, which promotes co-operation among religious groups on issues of peace, justice and the environment, and Interfaith Ottawa, a partnership between the multifaith community and the City of Ottawa that provides a united voice against acts of intolerance or hatred.
   
   "This doesn't exist anywhere else. As far as we know, it is unprecedented in cities," said the Very Rev. Shane Parker, rector of Christ Church Cathedral and dean of the Anglican diocese of Ottawa.
   
   Interfaith Ottawa is also working with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board to improve students' understanding of world faiths through activities connected with temples, mosques and synagogues. The Ottawa-Carleton Catholic School Board already transports 1,000 students to events at area mosques, synagogues and temples every year.
   
   "This couldn't have happened 50 years ago, and it could happen only in Canada, and at the moment it could only happen in Ottawa," says Pandit Sahasrabudhe.
   ...
   There wouldn't be any backlash in Ottawa, but in other places there would be," he said.
   
   Pandit Sahasrabudhe, 79, is a retired director of Agriculture Canada's Food Research Centre. He is also a Hindu priest with four decades of interfaith activities under his belt. He has long been providing spiritual care as part of the pastoral services at the Ottawa Hospital.
   
   He said "in each of the religions, there is a seed of hatred of the others.
   ...
   Pandit Sahasrabudhe said Ottawa leads other communities in interfaith activities partly because its population is the most highly educated in Canada, with almost half of its residents holding a post-secondary degree.
   
   He said the Citizen's weekly columns by religion experts from a variety of faiths "has also contributed to understanding."
   
   Ottawa's Catholic Archbishop, Marcel Gervais, was delighted by the number of interfaith activities when he first arrived in Ottawa in 1989. But he said what made the biggest difference in his own understanding of the importance of interfaith dialogue was the Pope's meeting with 52 different religious leaders in Assisi, Italy, in 1986.
   
   "It was a total novelty to me, a very pleasant shocking surprise," he said.