Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh!
What a wonderful year the CIC has had this year.
It is the CIC mission to deepen relationships across faith traditions, celebrate diversity and learn from and about each other. In this way we can foster interfaith harmony and cooperation in Calgary. This year our theme has been the courage to connect. I really feel that this theme has been fully embraced by the CIC this year as the CIC has connected with other organizations to co sponsor and co host events and this way has fostered collaboration and expansion.
Tonight, we are welcoming those new board members and thanking those board members who are stepping down.
We will be celebrating the member organizations that have worked with us during the year and so I will not name those organizations individually here. It has been amazing to work together to achieve so many wonderful programs and offerings like UNWIHW, G7, CIC Interfaith breakfast and others. I would like to acknowledge here the main committees of the CIC -sustainability, the programming committee, Indigenous reconciliation and antiracism, women of faith, scriptural reasoning and bible studies. Thank you all for your work and efforts to further the CIC mission.
All these committees and the Calgary Interfaith Council workings really depend upon the central hub for our organization and that is our executive director Sarah Arthurs. She is the glue that keeps us all connected and helps us achieve our wonderful programs and offerings. I know personally how many times each week Sarah and I connect on so many issues and really it is a 24/7 job especially when we are close to our flagship programs that have been put on. I appreciate her commitment and dedication so much and would not be able to do my job for the CIC without her.
The CIC has expanded with the city of Calgary with the community connector program and our community connector Elyse Brazel. Many of you members may have interacted with Elyse who is working to connect our membership communities and working to connect the CIC to communities that are not yet members. I appreciate her work and dedication to the CIC.
We are all communities that are beads on the rosary or mala of the divine. Tied together by the faith -that sacred thread that each religion has in God. In our own way we seek a connection with the Divine and are part of the sacred mala of God. We are an interfaith family, and you all are my family.
Just as we are bead on the mala, if ever one faith is threatened, then potentially all faith is threatened, and it behoves us to work together to foster interfaith harmony and dialogue. We must remember that if you can’t see God in all others, then you really can’t see God all all. We must work together to fully realize that the other person is actually a reflection of you. Realize the other person is you.
I would like to conclude with a thought to ponder. In our society today we value individuality, entrepreneurship, or uniqueness – like sports celebrities, or businesspeople or TV personalities, but when an individual is unique and distinct due to their religious discipline, it is not celebrated, it is mocked. We must work together to change this paradigm so that we can truly become a pluralistic multifaith society with interfaith harmony and respect. Let us work together towards this goal with the CIC. I invite you to join the CIC in fulfilling its mission in the coming year.
Let us come together, work together and be together with love and unity to show that Faith can unite people of diversity.
Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh!
