I’m attending the 2018 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Toronto, Ontario, Canada this week — performing in a pagan bardic circle on Tuesday, helping staff a booth for my community today and tomorrow and Monday, visiting with colleagues and allies and the curious from around the globe over the whole time.
There are something like 260 religions represented at the Parliament this year. It’s been amazing to see a Native man in feather bonnet speaking with a Buddhist monk, a Catholic priest and a Sikh sitting together for tea.
These kinds of serendipities seem pretty normal. Yesterday I happened upon the Quilt of Belonging, a uniquely Canadian project and the result of the organizational and planning and sewing work of Esther Bryan, who sought out each and every nationality in Canada including First Nations, and assisted the people she found in producing quilt blocks for the project.
Today I plan to attend Langar, the food offering of the Sikh community of Toronto — apparently the Sikhs have served upwards of two thousand free meals a day for the last several Parliaments, and I look forward to breaking bread with whomever I am given to sit with.
There’s more to write about the experience but that’s it for now.
