A world without hatred

As part of its Interfaith Education Series, Scarboro Missions hosts a session in which participants envisioned ways to creating a more peaceful world

By Leslie Gabriel Mezei
July/August 2008

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On April 29, 2008, the Scarboro Missions Spring Interfaith Education series came to a rousing close with an interactive session at which over 60 of us discussed, "My Vision for a World Without Hatred." One participant said, "Great success, I haven't seen this buzz here for some time. And people from so many faiths." There was representation primarily from Roman Catholic, Anglican, Jewish, Sikh, Unitarian, Quaker, Buddhist, and Muslim faith traditions. A group of Baha'i youth dropped in for part of the evening, although preparing for another event.

The more than 60 participants gathered for small group discussions during the session, "My vision of a world without hatred", at the Scarboro Mission Centre.

Shahid Akhtar, who has been a lawyer, journalist, TV host, and is now an adult educator and a specialist in nonviolent conflict resolution, led the session. As Coordinator of Workplace Discrimination Prevention with the Ontario government, Shahid has trained thousands of civil servants and others. A Muslim, he is co-founder of the Canadian Association of Jews and Muslims. It is his passion to organize events in which people can explore an issue in an interactive way, to make it relevant and applicable to each person so that they can take away something that has now become a part of their life.

At our session, we broke into six smaller groups of about ten participants and discussed our theme, "My vision for a world without hatred", from three different points of view:

1) our ideal world in which there would be no hate;
2) the barriers in the way of achieving it; and
3) ways to bring about this change and specific commitments we each are willing to make in that direction.

In the group discussions, some people found it hard to focus only on a positive view, or to separate the barriers from the solutions. However, despite the difficulties, the easels accumulated a large number of kiss points – renamed after someone suggested that a peace loving group should not use bullet points.

The discussions resulted in a great deal of excitement and determination to work on these issues, and the reporting after each session by representatives of the six groups was animated by lots of good-humoured competition. The spirit of the room at the Scarboro Mission Centre where so many wonderful interfaith gatherings have occurred, including many high school World Religions retreat days, contributed to a sacred and hopeful mood. Being surrounded by portraits and quotes of the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, Anne Frank, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Nelson Mandela, Chief Dan George, and Archbishop Oscar Romero added further inspiration.

During the intermission, there were tears in many eyes as we sang Happy Birthday to Charan Batra who attends many of Scarboro's interfaith sessions and brings words of wisdom from the Sikh tradition. We also shared in a cake baked by his mother who is visiting from India. Her presence at the study session enhanced the flavour of our interfaith gathering.

Charan Batra, a Sikh, attended the session accompanied by his mother who was visiting from India. As it was Charan's birthday, his mother brought a cake to share with the group.

Imagine a world without hate

Shahid encouraged us to imagine a world without hate and how we could bring this about. One group said it all in the synopsis of their discussions:

"A world without hate would require spiritually awakened human beings who reflect humility, love, tolerance, and large heartedness; people with personal value systems that are true to founding principles and that exist without the need to impose them on others. A world without hate would require individual and collective actions that are always a response of love; dialogue and meaningful communication; green and naturally healthy lifestyles, equitable distribution of resources; great diversity, and respect."

As the general fixes and the personal commitments intermingled, perhaps having each person write down at least one specific commitment would secure it more firmly in our consciousness. Paul McKenna, who organized the session for Scarboro Missions, is giving consideration to a follow up session next year, perhaps one in which we report on how we lived up to our commitments and examine how we can take the process another step forward.

Our facilitator Shahid Akhtar summed up our enthusiasm with his words: "I honestly think that this process of peacebuilding will spread out and have its own dynamics. People will call and inquire about it. My experience from other groups is that the participants will own the process as if it was theirs, applying what they learned to their daily lives and sharing their new understanding with others. There will be a ripple effect."

And perhaps in a future session we will learn from Shahid how he applies this method to situations of specific conflict.

Rev. Leslie Gabriel Mezei (leslie@barberry.ca) of the Universal Worship is an interfaith minister and Publisher of the Interfaith Unity newsletter and Resource Centre (www.interfaithunity.ca). He is a writer and speaker in the cause of unity, with special interest in the Golden Rule and Interspirituality

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