Toronto - Exploring World Religions - Encounter World Religions Centre

Date: July 11th-17th, 2010
Where: University of Toronto Multi-Faith Centre, 569 Spadina Ave., Toronto, Ontario
Group: Encounter World Religions Centre

Event Description: Encounter World Religions Centre will again offer our most popular program EXPLORING WORLD RELIGIONS — an unrivaled chance to explore the People, Places, Practices and Philosophies of 11 world religions in one amazing week.

Over the course of seven intensive days you’ll experience an encounter with world religions that is both intellectual and intimate. Thirteen dynamic class sessions introduce you to the Philosophy of world religions — the history, founders, and essential teachings of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Native Spirituality, Rastafari, Sikhism, Taoism, Wicca, and Zoroastrianism…blending both current issues and ancient stories in
an understandable and memorable way.

On a chartered bus you’ll make your way to eighteen Places associated with these traditions that include houses of worship and ethnic neighbourhoods. You’ll walk across the cool stone floors and soft carpets of some of the largest temples in North America and gain an appreciation for the variety and richness of approaches to the Sacred from the spectacular icons of Buddhism, Hinduism and Eastern Orthodoxy to the stark plainness and simplicity of an Muslim mosque, Zen meditation hall and open-air worship with Wiccans.

There you’ll meet the People: rabbis, monks, imams, priests and priestesses, Zen masters, elders, shamans, and everyday practitioners and shopkeepers. You’ll have opportunity to engage in conversation with them, ask questions, and share stories and traditional foods.

Finally, the Practices of each tradition come alive as they are enacted before your eyes. You’ll hear the reading of sacred texts in their original languages and listen to the recitation of prayers and liturgies thousands of years old. Sometimes amid deep tolling Buddhist bells and sometimes lifted by the solitary voice of a Jewish cantor, you’ll observe first hand the performance of rituals that inform the lives of billions of people around the globe.

Registration: $515.00 CDN (Earlybird Price), $565.00 CDN (After April 15, 2010)
(519) 822-0099 or encounter@worldreligions.ca