Ecumenical & Interfaith Dialogue
Even prior to the Second Vatican Council, Scarboro Missions had been publishing about interfaith in the monthly magazine. Emboldened by Vatican II, the Society increasingly engaged in inter-church social justice coalitions such as the Taskforce on the Churches and Corporate Responsibility (TCCR), the Interchurch Committee on Human Rights in Latin America (ICCHRLA) and the Ecumenical Coalition on Economic Justice (ECEJ).
Coalition efforts were supported by interfaith and intercultural dialogue both in Canada and in the global mission communities. At home, the Scarboro Missions headquarters served as a host for a variety of interfaith and educational events for adults and high school students.
Catholic and Muslim Youth Engage in Dialogue, 2002. Youth faith events were organized in part by Scarboro Missions during the 2002 Catholic World Youth Day in Toronto.
Facilitators and speakers of various faiths at The Golden Rule Interfaith Youth Conference, 2000
The September 2001 issue of the Society’s magazine is one of several focusing on interfaith dialogue. It is all the more relevant given its publication shortly before the events of September 11, 2001.
Perhaps most famously, Scarboro Missions interfaith consultant, Paul McKenna, developed the Golden Rule Poster, in consultation with the faith traditions represented. It aims to promote mutual understanding and cooperation toward a common good amongst all faith traditions.
An earlier version of the Golden Rule poster appeared in the April 1996 edition of the Scarboro Missions Magazine.The poster in its current form was launched in 2000.
The Golden Rule poster has been translated into 20+ languages, used as a resource globally in education, and was in was put on display at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.
Clipping from UNDiplomatic Times, the independent newspaper on the United Nations System, Issue 08, December 2001.
Ecological Justice
In 2015 Pope Francis published the encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si. However, the Society first published a magazine issue entirely dedicated to the environment in 1990 and has participated in protests against exploitative environmental practices at home and abroad, ecological restoration efforts in their mission communities, and education and advocacy amongst Canadians at home.
Pictured: Fr. Louis Quinn and with community members during reforestation efforts in the Dominican Republic, c. 1997
In 1989, Scarboro priests Frs. Pat Kelly and Charles Gervais stand in solidarity with their community in Malabalay, Bukidnon against exploitative logging companies destroying the local ecosystem and economy.
A community protest against destructive logging corporations in the Philippines, 1989
Clipping from the Bukidnon Star, October 1989. Vol1. No 8.
Clipping from the Manila Chronicle, October 6, 1989. Fr. Pat Kelly fasted in solidarity and protest alongside 13 community members in Malabalay, Bukidnon, Philippines, against exploitative and environmentally devastating logging practices.
Sapling tree with Rosary and label reading “Fasting for our Forest”, [1989]
What Does It Profit A People: Rain Forests: Eco-Systems or Commodities? by Fr. Justin MacInnis
An article on the ecological and economic impacts of deforestation in Brazil. Fr. MacInnis article appears in the September 1994 issue of Scarboro Missions Magazine, one of several issues dedicated to environmental topics since the 1990s.
The Society formally committed itself to ecological justice with a mission statement. A large-scale version of this poster (right) was hung in the Society’s headquarters. They divested from fossil fuels in 2014.
Katherine Vansittart, as part of Faith & the Common Good, a national interfaith network, designed The Green Rule poster (left), based on Scarboro Mission’s Golden Rule poster. Pictured here is an early version of the Green Rule, as published in the April 2006 issue of Scarboro Missions Magazine.
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