Kiersten Jensen’s Blog for being a Faiths Act Hub Leader

My faith has always been very important to me.  I am Presbyterian by baptism and United by confirmation (those are both denominations within Protestant Christianity, so basically I’m United, with a Presbyterian foundation).  Constantly learning and growing in my faith and spirituality is a very important part of my everyday life.

Being a daughter of two ministers, I’ve spent most of my life having to undo the preconceptions people had about me and finding myself in discussions about beliefs, morals, etc. with people who had different perspectives than my own. One of my favourites was this random interfaith discussion on a bus with a guy who was Wiccan.

Initially, the more involved I became in secular social justice movements, the less I felt like I could openly identify as being Christian (outside of random interfaith encounters).  I have found that there is an automatic negative reaction to organized religion within activist/social justice communities, and speaking as a Christian, that’s not entirely surprising.  There have been a lot of really awful things that have been/are being done in the name of religion.  Imperialism and abuse of power has been tied closely with religion in countless instances (a good CDN example is residential schools).  There are, however, a lot of really amazing things that have come from religious communities, often in reaction to these oppressive systems.  Community-based social services in Canada, like shelters, food banks, etc. largely originated from religious organizations.  Now there are tonnes of secular organizations taking this work on.  Jubilee was an inter-church campaign for rich countries to forgive the debts of the poorest countries which has grown into a few different coalitions and organizations fighting for debt relief .  These countries were largely spending most of their GDP just paying off the interest for these loans.  The Jubilee campaign has been called by some the most successful campaign in 25 years.

Jubilee was a concept that came from the Old Testament (Lev. 8 25-12) and fit quite nicely into their target year 2000.  Strategically they were set to lobby the international community and the G8, bringing a new level of awareness about the poorest nations in the world.

If groups from one religion can come together and make that kind of impact, think of what we can do if people from many religions, spiritualities, and philosophical perspectives come together to act.  I know that we can have a powerful impact in our Ottawa community, in Canada, and across the globe if we come together, learn from each other, and work as a united force to create a better world. 

One of the concepts that kept coming up at the One Voice of Faith conference Heather, Steph, and I attended was how eradicating poverty, malaria, gender inequality, etc. does not only liberate the people who are being oppressed; it liberates the rich, powerful, those of us who are often unwittingly doing the oppressing, as we grow spiritually and connect more deeply with the world and people around us.

That is why I want this interfaith movement in Ottawa to grow.  I want interfaithing to become part of more people’s everyday experiences.  I want to learn more about myself and others as I have discussions and work alongside people of different perspectives.  Lastly, I need to keep fighting for the kind of world I believe in.