By Quinton Amundson, The Catholic Register

[Calgary – Canadian Catholic News] – A vibrant interdenominational tapestry was woven at Ambrose University in Calgary June 12, on the first day of a G7 People’s Forum.

Faith rituals incorporated into the opening worship service included a Gospel reading from Luke, verses from the Quran, the sounding of the Shofar (a ram’s horn), and a musical land acknowledgement performed in Cree.

There were voices and elements from Muslim, Hindu, Indigenous, Jewish, Buddhist, Bahai, Sikh, Unitarian and Christian traditions.

Sarah Arthurs, the executive director of the Calgary Interfaith Council, told The Catholic Register that the spiritual celebration, which attracted approximately 200 people, was a fitting introductory event “as all the world’s religions have themes of justice, compassion, equity and care for the poor.”

The Hillhurst United Church congregant suggested these ideals will shape the discussions, workshops and other activities featured during the grassroots assembly June 12-15, preceding the June 15-17 Group of Seven (G7) Summit of world leaders at Kananaskis outside Calgary.

One of the two main speakers for the People’s Forum  interfaith service was Cardinal Pedro Barreto, who served as Archbishop of Huancayo from 2004-2024.  The Peruvian Jesuit prelate declared that faith communities “bring to the G7 leaders the voice and sentiments of a humanity suffering the consequences of their insensitivity and indifference.”

Barreto suggested representatives of some of the world’s largest economies realize that “the best way to face the serious problems that affect humanity is the promotion of human fraternity.”

The 81-year-old cardinal delivered a similar message during a June 9 speech in Toronto at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish hosted by Development and Peace – Caritas Canada. The humanitarian aid and international development agency of the Canadian Catholic Church was an organizing partner of the event alongside KAIROS Canada, Citizens for Public Justice and the Office of Religious Congregations for Integral Ecology.

Rabbi Cantor Russell G. Jayne of the Beth Tzedec Congregation Jewish community delivered the other major remarks after chanting verses from Leviticus 25, the passage in Scripture that proclaims the Year of Jubilee. The rabbi said one of the most important lessons the Jubilee teaches us is that everything in this world is the Lord’s domain.

“The Jubilee year reorients our perspective,” said Jayne. “Wealth, power, property — these are all temporary. What endures is our relationship with each other, the land and with the divine.”

Likening the Jubilee to a “societal reset,” Jayne said “its practice restores dignity to the poor, liberation to the slaves and equilibrium to society.”

KAIROS Canada is actualizing the Jubilee promise with a petition campaign calling on political leaders to cancel and remedy “unjust and unsustainable debts without economic policy conditions” and looking to prevent future debt crises from occurring by identifying root causes and establishing a debt framework backed by the United Nations.

Over 36,400 names have endorsed this initiative as of today. The goal is to attain 100,000 signatories by 2026.

Following the worship service, the Sikh Society of Calgary (Gurudwara Sahibs) provided a meal to foster fellowship.

“We take our shoes off, we cover our heads and we sit on the floor together with rugs,” said Arthurs. “There is equity. Nobody is more important than anyone else.”

The Calgary Interfaith Council, of which the Diocese of Calgary is a founding member, did not have a continuous role throughout the G7 Jubilee People’s Forum, however the organization supported an interfaith prayer gathering on June 14 at the Stoney Nakoda First Nation Medicine Wheel at the Stoney Park campground.

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Debt payments ‘nation-crushing,’ KAIROS forum told

By Quinton Amundson, The Catholic Register

[Calgary – Canadian Catholic News] – Global partners of KAIROS Canada advocated that all must strive for the collective liberation of the world from oppression and injustice by wiping clean nation-crushing debt.

Several presenters took the stage to share testimony and notable statistics during a plenary assembly on day two of the G7 Jubilee People’s Forum held at Ambrose University in Calgary June 12-15. The grassroots assembly was a prelude to the G7 Summit of world leaders happening in Kananaskis, an hour west of Alberta’s most populous city, from June 15-17.

Dean Dettloff, a research and advocacy officer for Development and Peace – Caritas Canada, shared that over “3.3. billion people in the world live in countries that spend more paying the interest of their debt than health care and education.” He added that many nation states also direct more funds to these expenditures than safeguarding the environment.

Salome Owuonda, the executive director at the Africa Centre for Sustainable and Inclusive Development (CSID) in Kenya, told the over 100 forum registrants that in her East African country “50 per cent of revenue generated is directed toward paying debt” and that puts health care, education, climate action and food security at risk.

“And things are not getting better,” said Owuonda. “The government is calling for more taxes as they have to try and pay the debt.”

A June 4 release from the African Sovereign Debt Justice Network said the Kenyan economy is approximately $77 billion (U.S.) in debt, which equates to $10 trillion Kenyan shillings.

Tarek Al-Zoughbi, a Palestinian Christian who serves as the project and youth coordinator at Wi’am: The Palestinian Conflict Transformation Centre in the West Bank, spoke about the suffering in Gaza and many countries around the world.

Al-Zoughbi said that during this Jubilee year, we “must begin to recognize this image of God that is in each of us and that is in the spirit of creation.” He called for an end to environmentally exploitative practices that contribute to ecological debt.

KAIROS Canada —  a faith-based ecumenical organization — wants 2025 to replicate Jubilee 2000. More than $100 billion of debt for 36 low-income countries was cancelled at the turn of the century.

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Canadian Catholic News (CCN) is a national news service, with members including Catholic newspapers, organizations, and individuals: CanadianCatholicNews.ca

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