

Amplifying and Engaging the Voices of Youth...
MY Voice is a non-profit, youth-run organization that strives to empower youth by providing them with opportunities to exercise their creativity through a positive media platform
“The very best of yourselves includes your faith.”
On the eve of Canada’s 150th birthday since Confederation, I was in conversation with 74 leaders of different faiths at the Faith in Canada 150 Millennial Summit in the Capital City. We came together to speak about Canadians’ faith in the private and public sphere in a time when we are expected to leave faith at the door of our places of worship.
If I could use a few words to sum up my experiences at the summit, they would be surreal and enlightening. Entering the room into the welcome reception was like encountering a sea brimming with waves of diversity in faith. I looked around and beamed with hope. Dastars, headscarves, kippahs, clerical clothing and Islamic topis–they made the room look like something I had only hoped for and not seen as of yet – unity amongst faiths. When I took my seat, I exchanged smiles with a young Rabbi next to me, unaware that the next day I would be seated in an Uber with a Palestinian driver and a pro-Israeli Rabbi. Talk about surreal!
One of my many favourite memories from the Summit is a conversation with a delegate about the prayer before our first lunch at the summit. The prayer was made by a Rabbi, and the delegate, who was Christian, spoke of how he appreciated the use of metaphors in prayers made by Rabbis; he admired how numbers used in their prayers often signified meaningful concepts, and I explained how I liked the Rabbi’s metaphor that we are all birds in God’s nest. To hear the prayers of people of different faiths – to be part of a means through which they connect to the Creator and have their voices heard, questions answered and solace, hope and goodness found – was an incredible privilege, and I surely am not the only one who feels this way. On the day we were heading out of Ottawa, I and two other delegates from DawaNet invited a delegate who we became close friends with, to pray with us. Together, a Mormon and Muslims, our hands up in prayer – the dim lit room and our hearts heaved serenity. Seeing our friend well up with tears when bringing the prayer to a close, told me that there was something undeniably special about praying together – perhaps, it was a profound realization that, indeed, we are like birds in the same God’s nest. Sharing our experiences with one another at the summit, we were overpowered with a sense of liberation and camaraderie when we found common ground in our stories. But, we also recognized the importance in finding beauty in our differences. Dr. Hamid Slimi reminded us of this while mentioning a verse from the Qur’an: “O mankind, indeed We have… made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another,” (Qur’an, 49:13).
Meeting the delegates was beyond beautiful because I was able to witness the same kind of hunger in our souls, and later realized, that it is the kind of hunger that I not only feel from each of the delegates, but from every person I meet. The only difference is that in everyday life, we do not have a language to communicate that deep meaning within ourselves, as Dr. Aileen van Ginkel would say. Engaging in dialogue about faith, we were gifted the opportunity to communicate hope and the deep meaning that rests within. Dr. Aileen van Ginkel encouraged us to leave the summit with the pursuit of learning how to tell our stories of faith and hope – that this would free others, giving them a way to express the deep meaning that lies within them. So, how can we use our faith to make a genuine positive difference in the public sphere?
One of the most important learnings I took away from the Millennial Summit is that faith is true and deeply Canadian, and that keeping private about our faith is not only wrong to our faith but wrong to Canada. Keeping private about our faith prevents the opportunity for Canadians to engage in tens of thousands of honest conversations, tens of thousands of acts of goodness. When a delegate at the summit, Abubakar Khan, engaged in interfaith dialogue in his community in Vancouver earlier this year, he was able to organize a stellar initiative –youth of various faiths in his community worked together to turn a mosque into a homeless shelter for a day and showed us the feats Canadians can accomplish when they have open conversations about faith. Although an increasingly secular Canada expects us to leave faith at the door of our places of worship, whether it be a mosque, church, synagogue, gurdwara or temple, the truth is that faith is always and will forever be present in Canadians. Millennials of faith do not walk into the classroom, workplace or social media wearing a separate hat. We are whole people and the very best of ourselves includes our faith.
“O Lord God! Make us as waves of the sea, as flowers of the garden, united, agreed through the bounties of Thy love.” —‘Abdu’l-Bahá
MY Voice is a non-profit, youth-run organization that strives to empower youth by providing them with opportunities to exercise their creativity through a positive media platform.
Leave A Comment
You must be <a href="https://myvoicecanada.com/wp-login.php?redirect_to=http%3A%2F%2Fmyvoicecanada.com%2Fmake-us-waves-sea-reflecting-faith-canada-150-millennial-summit%2F">logged in</a> to post a comment.