Walrus Talks Spirituality

Beyond the Beliefs that Divide

It was a privilege to be able to participate in the Walrus Talks Spirituality event that took place at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre for Faith, Justice and the Arts early in April. Joining me on the dias were Bishop Michael Ingham, Bishop Lewis Cardinal, Joan Garson, Natalie Bull, Timothy Caulfield, and Nicole Brooks. We were beautifully welcomed by Shelley Ambrose, Executive Director and Publisher of The Walrus Foundation. And Lieutenant-Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell welcomed us and the wonderful audience.

Walrus Talks Spirituality was co-sponsored by The United Church Observer. David Wilson, the Observer’s Editor and Publisher, had approached The Walrus about featuring spirituality in their Walrus Talks series and they had jumped at the opportunity. Since 2012, The Walrus has held almost fifty Talks across the country. The Talks centre on a different topic every time, gathering together seven speakers with insights into subject matter. Each speaker is responsible for a seven minute speech. The Observer has posted all the talks on its website.

It’s important to note that The Observer is not a magazine of The United Church of Canada (UCC). It operates independently of the denomination and only a small fraction of its budget comes from the UCC. When members of the United Church learned that I had been invited to speak, some of them were not happy. They wrote to the Observer demanding to know why I had been chosen to represent the church. Wilson, in his editorial that month, advised readers that I had neither been chosen by the Observer – it had been The Walrus who’d invited me, and I was not representing the United Church.

Here’s my seven minute speech, “Beyond the Beliefs that Divide.”

At the end, I speak about empact, the empathic impact we can each have on the world. That’s what I think spirituality can lead us toward, with or without a religious system supporting it.

What empact are you having in your relationships?