LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
My Interfaith Journey
Hello everyone!
My name is Delaine and I am a writer/staff member of Interfaithing. I thought I would share with you my spiritual journey and how I came to be a part of Interfaithing.
I was born in Montreal 22 years ago to a mother and father who weren't particularily religious. However, my Grandmother was a very religious Ukrainian woman belonging to the Catholic faith, so for her sake I was baptized Catholic and had my first communion (I never went through my confirmation though). I attended Ukrainian school from a very early age where we were taught by nuns and religion was closely tied into teachings. It was a very old school approach to Catholicism and as a young child I was never very interested. Still, I attended Orthodox Ukrainian church, not really understanding much that the priest was saying.
Once she passed away, my family pretty much stopped attending church besides major holidays like Easter and Christmas. As I got older and school and extra curricular activities took much of my time, and religion fell by the waste side all togeher.
As a teenager, I began to question religion, God, death, and similar subjects. I came to the conclusion that I believed in a higher power but it wasn't the God that Christianity talks about.
Up until recently I never gave too much thought to religion, which I think is common among children my age living in North America. I can't remember why, but somewhere along the way I became interested in Buddhism. So I bought a book and read it cover to cover within a couple of days. I really liked how Buddhism isn't considered a religion, but more of a philosophy or a way of life. The idea of karma, re-incarnation, meditation, and energy really intrigued me. I decided that I would follow the religion of being a good person, and treating others the way I wanted to be treated, not even knowing that interfaith existed. I do not consider myself a Buddhist, but reading that book definately opened my eyes to other faiths and left me wanting to learn more.
About two years ago I met Sam and he told me what interfaith was and the global community that was already practicing it. He told me that he wanted to start a website where interfaithers around the world could connect with each other and grow the community bigger. I was instantly intrigued! At the time I had just graduated from fashion design school and had graphic design training so I decided that I wanted to help him launch this project.
As we began to build the site I became more and more interested in interfaith and in other religions. Although I was never the type in the past to join the social justice or pastoral committee, I found myself becoming interested in those subjects. And then I figured it out, the only reason I was never interested in religion, or social justice before was because I was never exposed to it the right way. A way that made it interesting and exciting.
It has been almost a year since I started working on Interfaithing and I cannot believe how far I have come spiritually. The more news articles I read, the more interfaith goups I learn about, and the more interfaithers I meet, the more attached I am becoming to this project. Because now I know why I am doing this. I am doing this because I know there are a lot of people around the world who like me have no religious attachment, and are unaware about other faiths. This is a very dangerous because ignorance and lack of religious understanding is what causes so much conflict in this world. For example, up until recently I knew nothing about Islam. All I knew was what I heard on the news, or read in the paper, which is very misinformed. Now I know that Islam has a lot in common with other religions, and that Muslims are very peaceful and charitable people.
We need to spread this wealth of information in order to better understand each other. It's not to say that we should all abandon our religion. Each religion is beautifully unique in its own way. It's about seeing the positive similarities in each other faith and coming together to find common goal solutions to issues of shared interest. As different as we all are, we are all connected. Now is the time to come together.
I am not a religious expert, I do not have all of the answers. And that is exactly the point. It isn't about being right or wrong. It's about never loosing that curiousity that pushes us to continually learn about one and other, ask questions, and grow as individuals. This is the journey I am on.
I hope this gives the Interfaithing community some insight to who I am, and where I want to go. I hope you will join me! I look forward to meeting everyone who does!
Peace & Love
Delaine
Reply With Quote
I'm so happy to have you here and I can't wait for more people like you to join!
