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December 18 2011
The
2012 World Religion Day
The 2012 World Religion Day, in its 12th year in Ottawa, will celebrate
the theme “Water-Drawing from the Sacred” on Sunday January 15, 2012
starting at 2:00 pm at Jean Piggott Place, Ottawa City Hall, 110
Laurier Avenue West.
World Religion Day is held annually across the globe on the 3rd Sunday
of January. The events help foster interfaith understanding and harmony
by providing the opportunity to seek a unified approach to the
spiritual challenges that confront humanity, and recognizing that the
earth is but one country and humankind its citizens.
January 15, 2012 will be proclaimed World Religion Day in Ottawa by
Mayor Jim Watson. Over 250 participants from over 12 religious and
spiritual traditions come together every year to learn about each
other, especially about those beliefs that they have in
common. With an emphasis on common religious origins and
teachings, World Religion Day calls attention to the harmony that
exists amongst the spiritual principles of the world’s religions, and
emphasizes religion as a source of unity.
The event in Ottawa will feature various prayers and artistic elements
from the Baha’i Faith, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam,
Judaism, Sikhism and Native Spiritual Traditions.
This year’s theme “Water-Drawing from the Sacred” recognizes the
importance of water and its necessity for life. Water has a
central place in the practices and beliefs of many religions and
spiritual traditions. It is the purifying and life giving qualities of
water that underlie its place in our cultures and faiths.
What role does religion play today in humanity's care of water? As we
face the challenge of sustaining the world's water today and for the
future, religions and spiritual beliefs continue to play an
increasingly recognized ethical and practical role. Common values from
world religions can be a unifying force to foster harmonious bonds
between humanity and nature.
The keynote will be presented by Louise Profeit-LeBlanc, a member of
the Nacho N'yak Dun First Nation from Mayo, in north eastern Yukon. She
is a mother, grandmother and a keeper of stories. She presently lives
in Wakefield, Quebec with her husband Bob, and commutes on a daily
basis to Ottawa where she works as the Aboriginal Arts Coordinator for
the Canada Council for the Arts. Louise embraced the Bahá’í Faith in
1979 but first heard about the Faith when she was 11 years old. She has
served as the Chair for the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís
of Canada and is presently a member of Local Spiritual Assembly for the
Bahá’í Community of LaPeche. She comes from a long line of traditional
storytellers. Her repertoire consists of stories related to her
homeland. Stories of how the land was made, how her people lived and
survived for thousands of years. Many of these stories refer to how
everything in nature exists in balance but more importantly contain
morals and teachings for people to live harmoniously with each
other. One of the teachings is how to care for the land, the
water and all living things: “We must respect all that the Creator has
provided for us, I am honored to have this opportunity to speak of the
spiritual responsibility that we all have in protecting one of these
“Sacred” gifts, the gift of water, for without it all living things on
earth would perish”
The public is encouraged to attend this entertaining and engaging
celebration of the unifying power of the world’s religions.
For
Further Information Contact:
Nousha Ram
The Bahá’í Community of Ottawa
noushae@yahoo.ca
613.291.1775
To download a PDF version of this press release, click
here.
English
Poster PDF here
French
Poster PDF here |
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