“Look, I am doing something new.
Now it emerges, can you not see it?” Is. 43: 19

The Canadian Religious Conference invited its Ontario leaders and members of its JPIC network to come together to explore “calls to action” in response to a world of deep polarization. Sixty five folks gathered Jan. 25-27, 2016 in Kingston, Ontario. Ritual, communal contemplative sitting, input, process and just being together were all interwoven to create the opportunity for the participants to join, with others, as contemplative witnesses in the “World as a Sacrament of Communion” (Pope Francis Laudato Si’). What seemed to be the underlying energy was to consider ways to amplify the collective public voice of religious congregations by creating networking structures that could enable religious to work together in a focused and sustained way on the critical social, political, environmental and economic issues. Would it help us to “wake up the world by being real witnesses to a counter-cultural way of life” as Pope Francis has been asking for.

John van den Hengel represented the leadership of the Canadian Region and Peter McKenna represented JPIC.