In a world where open contempt seems more rife than ever and disconnect from one another has become a seeming norm instead of an aberration, the Calgary Interfaith Council (CIC) is set to offer a very real and effective alternative.

Kicking off on the Nov. 14 weekend, the CIC’s Weekend of Welcoming (WoW) is inviting Calgarians inside different faith communities that they would likely otherwise not visit unless they were already a member, and to take part in the time honoured tradition of breaking bread as a community.

Sarah Arthurs, the Executive Director of the Calgary Interfaith Council, said that connecting through WoW was a way to have agency in a world that seeks to make people feel powerless.

“In some ways, it feels often that we’re kind of going backwards right now, and things that we thought were in place are not in place. Civic norms, social norms are being eroded, and maybe not so much our faith in Canada and Calgary, but we get it from around us,” she said.

“A personal journey I went on myself was a sense of feeling powerless and then saying, ‘well, a way I can have power is to choose to show up to things that are expression of human community and human endeavour at its best, and to be aware of where are those places humans come together in ways that are life giving, that are inclusive, that are generative to align with because then we we don’t feel so powerless in a world is unfolding in ways we don’t like.”

The WoW weekend kicks off on Friday, Nov. 14 with a special Weekend of Welcome Shabbat Service at Temple B’nai Tikvah.

“People are often curious about what actually happens in services. So some feedback that we got from from our members and participants is that it is great to go and see buildings and meet individuals, but there’s also something that a different level of kind of power and kind of learning that happens when you actually participate in a service,” said Arthurs.

Temple B’nai Tikvah Rabbi Mark Glickman said that while the temple’s services are always open and welcoming to the public, the WoW weekend event was making a special effort to invite Calgarians in who have never participated in a Jewish service before.

“We’ll make an extra effort to explain what’s going on and to make our non Jewish guests, to help our non Jewish guests understand and and help make them and help them feel welcome and included,” he said.

He said the service would also help to clear up a misconception that has persisted through through the description of Jewish beliefs as part of a so-called Judeo-Christian belief system.

“There is no such thing as Judeo-Christian value system. There is a Jewish value system and there is a Christian value system, and they are both great value systems and they overlap in some areas, but what keeps them interesting are the ways in which they are distinct from one another,” said Rabbi Glickman.

“One of the great tools for living in a pluralistic society is education and learning about our neighbours, and hopefully this will provide some good opportunities for our visitors to learn a little bit about who we are.”

Rabbi Glickman said hosting different people was a point of pride for Temple B’nai Tikvah.

“As Calgary’s reform congregation we have all have always done whatever we could to build bridges between ourselves and other religious communities. We frequently have visiting groups from local churches, universities, and high schools,” he said.

The interfaith bus tour returns for Weekend of Welcome

As part of the Weekend of Welcoming, the CIC is bringing back their interfaith bus tour of faith communities with a pair of new members to the CIC.

Like the opening of Temple B’nai Tikvah to visitors, Arthurs said that visiting the Sikh Society, the Calgary Islamic Society SW Masjid, and the Avatamsaka Monestary (located at the site of where MEC was previously at in the west end of downtown) was about connecting.

“So, because of the fact that we spend time on the bus together, going to places, we have a chance to chat about what we’re experiencing and what we’re learning. So it creates a bit more kind of cohesive community that way,” she said.

“We have a school bus this time, so it will have a slightly different vibe than using a city bus. Everybody will have seats.”

She said the latter two locations were new members to the CIC.

The weekend concludes on Nov. 16, with an interfaith potluck hosted by Calgary Unitarians.

“We’re hoping that lots of people will come, and we will have a chance to connect and share and get to know each other better,” she said.

Arthurs said success from the Weekend of Welcome events would build on the previous successful work that the CIC has done to connect various faith communities in the city. She noted their women of faith initiative and a gathering of senior faith leaders to talk about AI.

Putting on events like the Weekend of Welcome was about using the social capital that the CIC has built up to build bridges between faith communities.

“We’re trying to build that sense of safety, and not just between individuals, but as we work with organizations that there is that sense of pressing each other a bit more and finding shared kind of goals,” she said.

For more details or to register for the Weekend of Welcome events, see www.calgaryinterfaithcouncil.org.