My goal in writing Pacific Spirit has been fairly simple: to introduce Vancouverites to the rituals and beliefs of our neighbours.
Fewer and fewer respondents to surveys acknowledge following a religious tradition, yet the number who describe ourselves as spiritual remains very high. Some people take issue with the very term 鈥渟piritual,鈥� but my impression is that most people have some form of transcendent beliefs or values and this is the best catch-all term we have at hand.
Religion and spirituality are essentially tools that people use to help guide them through life. Rituals associated with a religious stream help people mark life passages, from celebrating birth to preparing for and mourning death. Ethical directions set out in religious texts help people make choices in life and avoid actions that fall outside a community鈥檚 boundaries. And the origin stories and cosmological narratives at the heart of almost every religion help people grasp what is ultimately unknowable: how we got here and where we go next.
Many people have found new, non-traditional ways of marking life events. Many or most acknowledge that one does not need to adhere to a religion to live ethically. And science provides as good (if perhaps less satisfying) an answer to the Big Questions as religions do. Yet tying these three components 鈥� ritual, ethics and an explanation for the unknowable 鈥� into a tidy package remains a desirable and fulfilling thing for billions of people, which is why religions of different stripes have been so ubiquitous almost since we began walking on two legs.
I am captivated by ancient traditions that remain largely unchanged across millennia, or that adapt innovatively to the times, and Vancouver鈥檚 multicultural diversity provides so many examples of these earliest ideas still vibrantly observed.
Pacific Spirit has also given substantial space to atheism and to those who are 鈥渟piritual but not religious鈥� because this is where fascinating things are emerging. Since this is a column in a newspaper, spiritual innovations seem especially relevant because that is what鈥檚 new.
Between the contemporary practice of ancient traditions and the development of entirely new forms of spiritual fulfilment, I have tried to cover some of the breadth of spiritual life in the city.
This column winds up at a time when there are more incidents of violence and threats against Canadians based on their religion than ever in living memory. The Jewish Community Centre in 麻豆传媒映画was evacuated twice in the past week due to bomb threats, as have more than 140 Jewish institutions around North America already this year.
Six people were murdered during services in a Quebec City-area mosque this year, and anti-Muslim attitudes have taken an appalling hold on far too many North Americans.
The atmosphere of intolerance, open hatred and threats around religion and race in North America right now is not cause for great optimism. Canadians like to feel smug when looking south, but 82 per cent of British Columbians who are members of visible minority groups say they have experienced prejudice or discrimination. My hope is that the perpetrators and those who hold hateful ideas are a small number making big waves.
Equality and justice often result from the positive reactions of good people in reaction to bigotry and injustice. We live in a time of change, no doubt, but whether that change proves positive or negative depends on good people taking action.
鈥淗istory will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people,鈥� Rev. Martin Luther King said, 鈥渂ut the appalling silence of the good people.鈥�
What this time calls for is the sort of thing we saw at an East 麻豆传媒映画synagogue last week.
Or Shalom Synagogue (the name means Light of Peace) partnered with the Anglican diocese to hold a multi-faith event called 鈥淯nited in Compassion.鈥� Ministers and priests, rabbis, imams 鈥� about two dozen clergy in all 鈥� plus many lay people, engaged in discussion and then hung around to socialize. Across the range of traditions, each participant recognized that we are ultimately one people.
Almost every individual I have met in three years of writing this column has been seeking the best way to live their lives while improving the world. Each in their own way, they are trying to integrate ritual and ethics into their lives, while exploring the most profound questions of all.
Thank you for sharing these stories with me.
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Thanks to Barry Link for conceiving the idea for this column, to Michael Kissinger for allowing me to continue it, and to Dan Toulgoet, whose brilliant photography has illuminated these stories.
