Skip to the content of the web site.

Launch of the Centre for Dialogue and Spirituality in the World's Religions

On June 24, 2008 thirty people gathered in the Chapel Lounge for the official launch of the Centre for Dialogue and Spirituality in the World’s Religions.  The Centre had been announced in May of 2007--and was working through the past year--but this was its formal inaugural event. 

The Centre’s founder and director, Professor M. Darrol Bryant, welcomed those who had come, recounted its work during the past year, and outlined its future plans.  Those future plans include a forum for Muslim-Christian dialogue, a working group on Christianity and other faiths, and workshops on Spirituality and Dying, and Dialogue in the Schools.  He also emphasized the importance of public education for the Centre and its intention to create educational DVDs and written materials that promote new relations and understanding among people of the world’s faiths.

The first educational DVD of the Centre was then premiered.  It is entitled Festivals and Music of India: Holi at Vrindaban and Qawwali at Nizammudin.   One of participants remarked at the end of the evening that “the world needs dialogue” and “we have so much to learn from each other's spirituality.”  The Centre hopes to contribute to those ends.

Here is a response from Val Lariviere:

“The DVD preview served to draw the audience into a number of experiences of the kind of dialogue that the Centre itself invites.  As the camera led us down alleys in India to a Krishna/Rahda festival location, it was possible to feel both the risk and the reward of venturing toward another religious tradition.  After the screening, Dr. Bryant invited  comments on the DVD and then turned the discussion toward the Centre itself.  The feeling of excitement grew more palpable as people offered questions and ideas to Dr. Bryant and his response was always positive and inviting; every suggestion had merit, any direction was possible.  There was a sense of being present at the precise moment thought and intention turned into action. I was ready to become involved.”