{"id":739,"date":"2018-11-01T20:28:46","date_gmt":"2018-11-02T04:28:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/?page_id=739"},"modified":"2018-11-01T20:44:55","modified_gmt":"2018-11-02T04:44:55","slug":"faith-forum-column-and-spiritually-speaking-blog","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/?page_id=739","title":{"rendered":"Faith Forum column and Spiritually Speaking blog"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/spiritually-speaking.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-749 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/spiritually-speaking.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"104\" height=\"104\" \/><\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 By Anna Bowness-Park<\/h4>\n<h4>Moderator for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timescolonist.com\/opinion\/blogs\/spiritually-speaking-1.61091\">Faith Forum and Spiritually Speaking<\/a><\/h4>\n<p>Those of you who receive the print edition of the Times Colonist may have noticed a column, often found in the Religion section in the Saturday paper. It is called Faith Forum. So, who are these writers of this column and how did it begin?<\/p>\n<p>Nine years ago I approached the Times Colonist editors with the idea to begin a community blog on their paper\u2019s website that gave different faith groups and spiritual thinkers a space to share their ideas, to correct misunderstandings regarding their faith and to promote a greater dialogue within the community on spirituality. The editors loved the idea and we named the blog, <em>Spiritually Speaking.<\/em> You can find it today in the right-hand column on the front page of the online paper.<\/p>\n<p>We started out with eight brave writers, mostly from the UVic Interfaith Chaplaincy (now UVic Multifaith Services); a list of Guidelines and strong support from the Times Colonist for the blog. A few months later the Editor-In-Chief at the time, Denise Helm, came up with the idea of a weekly column in the print edition. That column is called <em>Faith Forum<\/em>.\u00a0 Every article that appears in print also appears on the blog, along with some extra articles that are published there each week.<\/p>\n<p>Today we have 24 writers from different faiths in Victoria and a good readership base. It is a wonderful achievement by these hard working, dedicated writers. We also have a Twitter account from which to publicize the articles more widely.<\/p>\n<p>In a world where religion and faith discussions are sidelined or become political footballs, these two formats &#8211; the print column and the online blog offer readers a fresh way to consider the issues of the day in a spiritual context. It is also the only model of its kind in North America.<\/p>\n<p>As moderator, and as a member of the Communications Committee with the VMS, I am pleased to announce that these two media platforms are now under the wing of the VMS as an activity of this society.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 By Anna Bowness-Park Moderator for Faith Forum and Spiritually Speaking Those of you who receive the print edition of the Times Colonist may have noticed a column, often found in the Religion section in the Saturday paper. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/?page_id=739\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-739","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=739"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":753,"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/739\/revisions\/753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}