A Stand for Faith

Judy Csillag

May 12, 2016

"A woman of valor, who can find?" asks the book of Proverbs. "Far beyond rubies is her value." I had found my woman of valor in an everlasting friendship with Tanya Khan. 

I first met Tanya about 20 years ago when I worked for an organization that taught interfaith understanding to school kids She and I organized the first visit of Muslims, including Imams, to the Toronto Holocaust Centre, where most of the audience wept at hearing a survivor’s story ...

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Religion in Canada’s Public Square

Stephanie Schoenhoff

May 11, 2016

For Dr. Sam Reimer, Professor of Sociology at Crandall University in New Brunswick, it isn’t hard to determine whether faith communities contribute to the flourishing of Canadian society.

Reimer was interested to find that these philanthropic qualities amongst religious people weren’t only specifically applied in faith spheres “We know that people who are generous or volunteeristic are those who have a couple qualities: one is that they’ve been taught values related to generosity and...

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Yes, Let's Reopen the Debate on Lobbying Limits

Janet Epp Buckingham

May 11, 2016

Arguing in favour of limits on lobbying opportunities for those exiting political office, Coyne gives politicians and their staffers the sarcasm treatment He pictures lobbyists slinking in the shadows of Parliament, seeking to curry favour with the political elite in order to benefit a “large corpor...

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Something Most Significant

Damian MacPherson

May 9, 2016

What I have in mind is the type of an event which should be told over and again. What I am about to describe here is unusual, simply because of its infrequent occurrence. 

Both Rabbi Erwin Schild, who is Rabbi Emeritus of Adath Israel Synagogue in the city of Toronto where he served for more than forty years and his wife Laura are the center piece of this brief but profoundly significant story Barbara Boraks, Executive Secretary of the Christian Jewish Dialogue of Tor...

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Fire in Fort McMurray: A Proper Response

Peter Stockland

May 6, 2016

But a first response that reaches down to the grocery checkout, and stays there for the time being, must be good for Canada, good for Canadians, and even good for the people of Fort McMurray, difficult as that may be to believe right now. Canadians, en masse, are turning their eyes, hearts, mind and...

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Yom Hashoah with Canadian Roots

Belle Jarniewski

May 5, 2016

Since 1953, the 27th of Nisan on the Jewish calendar, which in 2016 falls today, has been marked as a day for observing with solemn ceremony the most terrible tragedy to befall our people. 

At the Shaarey Zedek Synagogue in Winnipeg, in partnership with the Freeman Family Foundation Holocaust Centre of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada, we have taken this liturgical observance of Yom Hashoah one step further: the Megillat Hashoah reading is an interfaith event ...

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The New Scientism: Still Fighting the Phantom War

Doug Sikkema

May 5, 2016

And while it seems that perhaps Dietrich's "new" science is opening up pathways to a much older "religion" or, as he frames it, a less divisive and violent religion, there is almost nothing in his account of these natural mysteries that will form us into better people, provide a grounding of moralit...

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This is no time to turn the clock back for education in Alberta

Beth Green

May 3, 2016

It’s an approach that has always been central to the progressive liberal platform in education, and Hargreaves has held Alberta up for a decade as a model of such systematic building of educational excellence ...

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50 Years of Yes

Peter Stockland

May 2, 2016

Fifteen years into ministry, he questioned himself rigorously about carrying on as a priest. Thirty-five years later, now retired, he still sometimes asks himself “why” he said yes time after time. 

Walsh came out of the seminary eager to minister in a Church he believed was renewing and re-orienting itself in accordance with God’s calling ...

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In Every Generation

Belle Jarniewski

April 29, 2016

A little over a week ago, Jews all over the world marked the Passover Seders together. Read Belle Jarniewski's article on collective story-telling and heritage.

In one of his introductions to the Megillah, Rabbi Reuven Hammer, past president of the International Rabbinical Assembly, elaborated a new imperative of Jewish life; a new responsibility: “We must all view ourselves as if we had personally experienced the Shoah ...

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Canada's First Mosque

Stephanie Schoenhoff

April 27, 2016

Canada’s first Mosque, Al Rashid, is a not just a piece of history. Today, it’s a vibrant community in Edmonton that brings together thousands of Muslims and non-Muslims alike each year.

While this time it didn’t require the support to finish the project, the charitable spirit of the community is emblematic of Edmonton’s hospitality toward Al Rashid “When they built the new Al Rashid, the very large one here on the north side of Edmonton, I know they went out to people from the Jewi...

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Not All That We Desire

Alan Hustak

April 25, 2016

As Canada began coming together in a confederation 150 years ago, considerations of faith were at the forefront of the debate. Convivium contributor Alan Hustak writes that only one bishop in Quebec openly supported the original union. Even those not adamantly opposed, such as Catholic Archbishop Pierre-Flavien Turgeon, tepidly termed it a mere lesser of two evils.

...

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Religious Hatred's Blood Borders

Daniel Bezalel Richardsen

April 25, 2016

In reading Rabbi Jonathan’s Sacks’ Not in God’s Name, Daniel Bezalel Richardsen discovers that the only way out of the cycle of global religious violence is through textual understanding tempered by lived reality.

"These are deeply troubled times,” writes Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence, after he lists the sad state of religiously motivated violence and hatred in our already aged young century Is the only thing compelling assent superior study? Is it knowledge of reli...

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Beyond the "A" Word

Deborah Rankin

April 25, 2016

Looking at two models of maternal health care being developed in Montreal, Deborah Rankin discovers a path beyond the morass of moral debate – and a way to do what’s best for mom and baby, too.

Yet people who are acting out of a genuine concern for expectant mothers ought to be able to agree on certain things, such as that it makes sense to provide optimal health care, as well as access to the necessities of life, for women who are expecting and that the maternal rights of pregnant women m...

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Small Talk

Raymond J. de Souza

April 25, 2016

An eclectic roundup of incidents, events And oddities that catch our Editor’s eye.

Hillary Clinton was at the Reagan funeral, not as a presidential candidate but as a former first lady Awaiting the arrival of their wives at the airport, “Reagan threw his arm around my shoulders and said with a grin, ‘You know, Brian, for two Irish guys, we sure married up!’” For those who remember...

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