ABOUT THE INTERFAITH YOUTH ALLIANCE MOVEMENT
As Toronto Catholic District School Board students we are inspired by our
three year pastoral plan, “Rooted in Christ: we Belong, we Believe, we Become”.
In the time that we celebrate belonging, we hope to build and
foster a global sense of community through interfaith dialogue.
While attending the Parliament of World Religions we were inspired
by Eboo Patel, the founder of Interfaith Youth Core, and the work they do.
We witnessed presentations from speakers of diverse backgrounds,
interacted with representatives from many faith traditions,
enjoyed a langar meal hosted by the Toronto Sikh community,
and celebrated faith traditions through music, dance, and visual arts.
From this enriching event, we had the idea of continuing
this interfaith experience by bringing together youth of different faith traditions.
We hope to model it on the Interfaith Youth Core following that has
gained strength and momentum in the United States.
Our goal is to create opportunities for youth
to connect and bond with people
of diverse worldviews and faith traditions.
We hope this will help youth foster a better appreciation of others,
make a deeper connection to their own understanding of faith,
celebrate our commonalities and differences,
and work together on issues to create stronger compassionates communities.
"To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater"
- Bono
