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February
12, 2016
World
Religion Day: a meeting of friends
by
Stephen Thirlwall
Centretown Buzz
 When people of different
backgrounds, whether by faith or culture, come together in harmony,
this opens new avenues for positive future developments in our
collective Canadian culture—a culture becoming more global every day.
By being together in a non-confrontational environment, we begin seeing
one another as friends. We are building bridges: the theme of this
year’s annual World Religion Day celebration, held at Ottawa City Hall
on January 17.
The program was primarily a sharing of prayerful music, song and
chanting from various religious perspectives, with the hope of
stimulating friendships through spiritual artistic performance.
After a welcome and short opening remarks by host Jay Howden, the
gathering was blessed by the sharp drumming and high-pitched singing of
“Way hey yah! Way hey yah, hey i yo!” by Ottawa’s indigenous Every
Women Drum Group. This was in honour of the Algonquin territory we are
on and was sung toward the four cardinal directions.
Closely following was a prayer in Spanish performed passionately by
Caridad Cruz to lively flamenco guitar. Adding a meditative feel to the
event, Amazing Grace was sung by a youth (Faith Aqiqi) to the
accompaniment of electric violin. Some audience members followed along,
quietly singing to themselves.
Mayor Jim Watson welcomed everyone to City Hall. Attending with him
were Councillors Marian Wilkinson and Shad Qadri. Mayor Watson
mentioned that World Religion Day, having started about 65 years ago in
the United States, has spread to become a celebration in many parts of
the world.
Each group, while celebrating their own faith, also builds unity with
others through collective celebration. This, he said, “promotes harmony
and mutual understanding between people of all faiths” and “unites
everyone, no matter what their faith.”
The mayor honoured the work of Ottawa’s faith communities at the
forefront of sponsoring and assisting the new Syrian immigrants coming
to live here. He said that the Vietnamese community, who had been
greatly supported by Ottawa when many of them arrived as boat people,
are now making efforts to welcome the newly arriving Syrians.
Mayor Watson praised the citizens of Ottawa for being leaders in
Canada, having the highest number of volunteers per capita and for
giving the most dollars donated to charity per capita of cities in the
country.
The main program began with the Ottawa Bahá’í Choir singing a prayer
from Bahá’u’lláh, “Blessed is the spot/Beni est le lieu,” indicating
that, wherever we mention and praise God, that spot becomes sacred.
Together, we can make the entire world a “sacred spot.”
Cantor Daniel Benlolo of the Jewish Community of Ottawa commented that
we all learn through adversity, but we ask God, as our refuge and
sustaining power, to enlighten us and lead us towards peace of mind and
building of a new and better life. He then sang Psalm 21.
A group from the Ottawa Sivan Hindu Temple sang a hymn giving a
blessing from God Shiva to the sound of sitar and tabla. The blessing
said: God is the Wisdom and Knowledge, the Power of Creation, the only
One to be praised. The Orleans United Church Choir sang that we must be
sisters and brothers united by God and building a land of peace and
freedom, Alleluia!
Gurbachon Singh of the Ottawa Sikh Society sang along to recorded music
that “whether I am standing or sitting, asleep or awake, at home or
outside, I am at peace and feel no fear or worry. God, my Lord and
Master, Protector and Searcher of hearts, pervades everywhere to help
build bridges between us.”
Some Arab youth and adults from the Muslim community performed a song
of thanks in Arabic to the Prophet. Mention was also made about giving
respect to all Creation and showing love and unity to the world of God
(the One, the Only) asking for guidance in times of trouble.
Pierre-Louis Duval de la Communauté Adventiste d’Ottawa sang in French.
To close off the program, the Bahá’í children’s choir delighted
everyone with two songs. Then, there was what seemed like an impromptu
return of the Every Women Drum Group to sing with all the audience
joining in. Everyone happily gathered at the back of the hall for a
reception, with food and conversation.
This very uplifting experience teaches us to think about one another
not as separate groups of strangers who act differently from us, but
rather as newly met friends who share similar core values and express
ourselves in a diversity of beautiful ways.
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