A Meeting Place

The Scarboro Mission Centre offers a welcoming space for people of all faiths and cultures to gather in a spirit of dialogue and understanding

By Tina Petrova
March/April 2007

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I am standing in front of a group of youth: multicultural and multiracial – all the possible skin tones represented. One person catches my attention. She has bold pink streaks woven throughout her razor-feathered cropped hair and multiple piercings – tongue, nose, eyebrow and God only knows where else. She has tuned out and is consumed by the music blasting into both ears from her iPod, the newest craze today.

Am I in a movie theatre line-up on a Saturday evening in Toronto?

No, I am standing in front of a Grade 11 class at the Scarboro Mission Centre, as one of several facilitators at a high school World Religions retreat day.

The pink-haired multi-pierced youth surprises us later that day when she rushes into my arms, wraps herself around me and says, "Miss, I want to know God like you know God!" Her change of heart brings every member of our facilitation team to tears.

Welcome to the "Mystics and Missionaries" retreat program for high school students – brainchild of Scarboro Mission Centre's director extraordinaire, Kathy Murtha. The focus of the retreat is Saint Francis and Rumi – one a Christian, the other a Muslim. These two men of God lived in the 13th century, a time when Holy Wars raged in the Middle East, a time eerily similar to our own.

This Catholic retreat has the potential of being inclusive of all religions and of finding common ground among religions. Saint Francis' primary journey was outward to the poor and to the Muslims in the Middle East – encountering God in the peoples of the world. Rumi, poet and mystic, journeyed inward to the Beloved. Whatever the journey, in the end, the spiritual pilgrim comes to the same understanding: the Oneness of All. The retreat ends with a Buddhist meditation developed during the 13th century that reinforces this sense of Oneness.

Kathy opened this particular morning by giving the Grade 11 students an overview of Scarboro Missions, its history and its many activities. She said that 85 years ago, the very room we were in had been used to train young missionary priests on their way to China. They were going to bring salvation to the Chinese people.

"Those early missionaries who paved the way have made it possible for us to enter into dialogue with other peoples today, for it is in dialogue that we get a fuller picture of God," Kathy said to her young audience.

She asked one student with low-slung pants almost sliding off his lean body, "What would surprise those young missionaries the most if they walked into this room today?" The room was silent.

"Seeing the whole world here," the young man said, referring to the many cultures and heritages represented in the room.

Global vision

Today, with the emergence of dynamic overseas service opportunities, more and more young people are venturing abroad. Short-term experiences of living and working in the global South have a lasting impact and contribute to the foraging of new future leaders with a global vision. Given Scarboro's extensive missionary experience, it seems a natural outgrowth that they should minister to such initiatives.

Early last year Kathy and Scarboro missioner Fr. Terry Gallagher invited leaders from various overseas immersion programs to a day of sharing their stories, concerns and hopes for their organizations.

It became apparent after this initial gathering that Scarboro could offer valuable assistance in the area of debriefing and integration, as young travelers return home and try to make sense of the imbalance between living conditions here and what they experienced overseas. This debriefing is a crucial aspect of overseas service that is too often neglected.

The gathering led to a two-day retreat at the Mission Centre entitled "I Can See Clearly Now". Sheila and Dwyer Sullivan, who have developed a powerful and effective debriefing process, assisted Fr. Terry and Kathy in this new initiative.

Stories were shared along with laughter, jokes and tears around a traditional Native fire circle. Two members of a First Nations community braved the elements to tend the fire and pray for the young people around the clock for the 48 hours. Participants were invited to sit in silence by the fire anytime of the day or night as they felt called to do so.

Today's teachers are preparing youth for the future global community and Scarboro Missions wants to put its resources and experience at their service. Kathy and Fr. Terry have also worked with student leaders to form a vibrant social justice group that will impact the rest of their school.

Space for dialogue

The Mission Centre's primary mandate is to create space for dialogue and discernment. As retreat director, Kathy Murtha hopes to deepen the current initiatives even further.

At the present time, several faith groups make use of the Centre: the Zen group's weeklong retreats in which meditation and silence are a key focus; the Sufi's energetic practice of Zhikr, or remembrance of God through chanting the name of God repeatedly, brings inner purification and spiritual growth.

When I spoke to Kathy in preparation for this article, she expressed the desire to develop new retreats that would integrate the world's many diverse religions in a hands-on experiential way and promote the Golden Rule. So far, there has been a very positive response to the Golden Rule retreat developed by Kathy together with Katie Marshall Flaherty, a mother of three, a lay missionary and a poet. The day begins by introducing the students to the Golden Rule Poster and the application of it in ever widening circles. The Golden Rule is first applied to our own body, to our relationships with the opposite sex, to the global family, and lastly to the Earth itself and all of Creation.

The Interfaith Series, initiated by Paul McKenna, is a popular event that takes place one night a week for six weeks in the spring and fall. Large crowds pour in for weekly topics such as "Women in Islam", "Sex and the Sacred" and "Mystics across the religions". The talks led by spiritual leaders from several faith traditions, specialists in their fields, result in fruitful dialogue and thought-provoking reflections.

Paul also leads another Grade 11 world religions retreat day. Moving every 40 minutes between presenters from various faith groups, students experience firsthand the way of prayer for each religious tradition. They do yoga, chant Om, and are allowed to view the Qur'an and the Torah; they discuss rituals previously shrouded in mystery. Clear and thoughtful answers provide enlightenment and enriched understanding to misconceptions.

Christian prayer

Recognizing the wonderful, and often not well known spiritual resources in the Christian tradition, the Mission Centre offers the Christian Meditation Series during Lent and Advent. Nights are dedicated to Ignatian prayer and spirituality, Franciscan and Carmelite spirituality, Taize prayer, Centering Prayer and Christian Meditation (John Main). Some 60-90 people attend each night.

Says Kathy, "Some experts believe that the reclaiming of meditation and contemplation as a core discipline of the Christian path is one of the most significant spiritual developments of our time. And I have witnessed this during these evenings."

Emerging from the Meditation Series is a Centering prayer group that meets every Thursday. Down the hall on the same evening is a lively group of strumming and singing Charismatics. "One group praises God with robust songs and the other encounters God in silence, and Scarboro Missions welcomes both," says Kathy. It is her hope that the Centre continues to become firmly rooted in Christian prayer of all kinds.

Ultimately, Kathy would love to see a team of people with varying gifts working together to realize Scarboro's vision. She envisions a pool of resource people of all religions and cultures available for retreats together with the Catholic team now in place.

At the same time that the Centre remains steeped in its own Christian values and faith tradition, it is also becoming a beacon of light and hope to those who travel from near or far for retreats and an open-hearted space where tolerance, respect and understanding are practiced in the true Christian spirit.

Tina Petrova is a member of the Scarboro Mission Centre's facilitation team. Her theatre and film background calls her to engage students as a Sacred Activist and filmmaker who has found her own life deeply enriched by both studying and living within other religious traditions.

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