O' World: Many Voices, One Spirit
1st July 2014
Swami Ritavan Bharati invites leaders to organize themselves, initiates, and students for a group meditation and individuals to meditate, singly or in groups, on Tuesday, 1st July 2014, to show our global response and solidarity with Swami Veda’s mission of interfaith and global meditation.
Chander Khanna, center leader in Toronto, Canada, shared news and an invitation of “O' Canada: Many Voices, One Spirit,” an interfaith celebration to be held on 1st July, Canada Day, in Toronto, from 9:30 am to 1 pm (Eastern Daylight Savings Time).
As people of different faiths are celebrating together in Toronto, we are invited to expand that celebration to the places we find ourselves on July 1st, to wherever we are. If you would like to further co-ordinate your meditation to fall within the times the Toronto celebration will be taking place, here is one website that may help: http://www.timeanddate.com (Some cities have been preselected. You may have to add your own city to the chart.)
“Wonderful to see your dedication to Interfaith, a subject near and dear to the heart of Swami Veda and all of us. And, such a beautiful way to Celebrate an National Holiday. Through collective minds brought to silence and worship the nation is indeed served and honored. At the same time, the awareness of global unity unites heart and minds through faith communities around the globe. Swami Veda, with the Bharati swamis and other members of the AHYMSIN sangha around the globe will join all of you at that time with meditation and akhanda-japa,” Swami Ritavan has written to Chander.
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Chander Khanna’s invitation:
Toronto Area Interfaith Council cordially invites you to a very special Canada Day celebration.
It was Thomas Merton who said we have reached a fork in the road in our collective journeys as individuals, societies, cultures where it is no longer sufficient to be simply tolerant or respectful of faiths and belief systems other than one’s own, but to actually share in the traditions and sacred rites of other faiths.
In this, Toronto is uniquely blessed in celebrating its cultural diversity and religious pluralism - in particular, the sharing in the customs and practices embedded in those rich traditions.
We are thankful to all the volunteers, participants and well-wishers who came together last year as a unified GTA interfaith family in hosting the North American Interfaith Network (NAIN) three-day conference featuring thought-provoking lectures, seminars, workshops and precious moments of silent reflections and prayers. The conference enabled us to showcase Toronto but it also helped us in deepening our own sense of sharing the rich spiritual traditions in our midst.
Following up on that shared experience, Toronto Area Interfaith Council - a collective of many faith traditions and spiritual paths and one of the lead sponsors of last year's NAIN conference - is pleased to extend a cordial invitation to everyone to the following event which also serves as our unique offering in celebrating Canada Day.
O' Canada: Many Voices, One Spirit
An offering in gratitude of Sacred Ceremonies and Prayers, led by Elders from the city’s major faith traditions.
Carrying on with a tradition established by a very senior monk of the Indian Swami order, Swami Veda Bharati, on Tuesday July 1st our Co-host University of Toronto’s Multi Faith Centre will serve as a church, a temple, a mosque, a synagogue, an ancestral place of worship and a place of meditative silence.
The congregation - all of us of different faith traditions - will not be just silent witnesses but participate as possible in sacred rites, agape (sharing of bread), homa (fire) ceremonies, Azan (Muslim call to prayer), smudging, dervish whirling, interspersed with silent contemplation and completed with a contemplative walk.
In the interest of fellowship and congeniality, please bring something small by way of a refreshment to be shared with fellow worshippers.
9:30 AM to 1:00 PM
Tuesday July 1st, 2014
Multi Faith Centre, Koffler House, 569 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Canada\
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