Hello friends!
Can't believe our time in Toronto is
half-gone! Which means we leave for Japan in exactly 3 weeks! As we
mentioned before, we spent Saturday, our day off, at Niagara Falls.
We took a greyhound from Toronto to Niagara (well, eventually...they had to grab a second bus they had overbooked so many of us!) and then walked to the falls (about 2km). The day was filled with sunshine and “rain” :)
Today (Sunday), we split into groups
and headed all over Toronto to worship with different Christian
communities: San Lorenzo Anglican, St. John's Evangelical Lutheran,
Assemblee Nouvelle Alliance, Toronto Chinese United Church, Church of
St. Stephen Anglican, and Friendship Community Church. Doug and I
went with a few others to Friendship Community Church, a reformed
community that is incredibly diverse and welcoming.
We met people
from Jamaica, Nigeria, Ghana, Sri Lanka, and also native Canadians,
all who have formed this faith community and consider one another
family. They welcomed us with open arms and invited us to their
potluck after the service (potluck...reminded us of Arkansas!). The
food was, of course, delicious. The experience as a whole was a great
way to begin thinking about encountering people in a different place
that tell their story in a different way.
Tomorrow we will be hearing even more
diverse stories. We are going to be visiting Cham Shan (a Buddhist
temple), and the Islamic Foundation of Toronto. We are very excited
to begin a practice of stepping outside of our own religious boxes to
engage in what we hope will be a two-sided, inter-religious and
inter-ideological dialogue.
Fellow servants in Christ,
Doug and Jenny
No comments:
Post a Comment