{"id":1801,"date":"2024-11-26T18:22:32","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T02:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/?p=1801"},"modified":"2024-11-27T07:20:34","modified_gmt":"2024-11-27T15:20:34","slug":"annual-meeting-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/?p=1801","title":{"rendered":"Annual Meeting 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Roughly 30 people attended this year\u2019s AGM, held on 24 November at the Lutheran Church of the Cross, where the VMS Annual Report<\/strong><\/a> was presented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AGM theme of\u00a0Faith & Activism<\/strong>\u00a0was addressed by keynote speaker\u00a0Hanan Abousaleh<\/strong>. Hanan spoke of her journey this year as a young Muslim woman who became a community organizer of the Palestine solidarity\u00a0rallies <\/strong>when the October 2023 massacre led a brutal occupation to become an even more brutal war on Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the emcee of the rallies for several months,\u00a0her approach was simple: welcome people to the rally; give an overview of the past week; introduce presenters; lead a march. This has happened every\u00a0weekend for the past\u00a059 weeks and counting. Hanan is driven by the struggle for human rights. She mentioned some of the abuse and intimidation she and fellow activists have faced, but she remains steadfast in her commitment to the liberation and equality of all people as one family.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hanan credits her faith for giving her hope and courage through this very long and intense ordeal of reporting each weekend on massacre after massacre. As an example, she cited the teachings inscribed on the sword of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH): \u201cMaintain relations with those who cut you off, speak the truth even if it is against yourself, and be good to one who is evil to you<\/strong>.\u201d The teaching to speak the truth even if it would be to your own detriment moved her to action. She also spoke of the good that has come from several unexpected places on this journey. It was through the welcoming community at various Palestine-related activities that she learned about other important local causes that sparked her compassion and admiration. This diverse community comprising people of all faiths, ethnicities and backgrounds only strengthened her belief in the importance of building connections and finding common ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Activism, she now believes, should be treated as a way of life, not just a series of temporary campaigns. She encourages\u00a0everyone to be curious about the\u00a0causes of their\u00a0neighbours,\u00a0since curiosity is the first step to solidarity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

VMS would like to thank Hanan for her thought-provoking and inspiring presentation. We\u2019re also grateful for the event volunteers, participants, presenters and all those who supported not just the AGM but the many VMS initiatives during the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assisting as presenters of the 2024 Annual Report were Rukhshan Butt<\/strong> (Ahmadiyya community) on the World Religions Conference; Dale Ruttan<\/strong> (LDS Church) on the Interfaith Liaison Network; and Cat Vallance<\/strong> (Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00ed community of Esquimalt) on the Hiroshima-Nagasaki commemoration. Board members reported on a wide range of activities: see photos and highlights of the year<\/strong><\/a> here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outgoing board members John Borrows<\/strong> and Henri Lock<\/strong> were warmly thanked for their terms of service to the board since 2019. John Carter<\/strong> and Jeannine Friesen<\/strong> were welcomed as board members in the Indigenous Spirituality and Christian seats respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019d particularly like to thank Patrick Leon<\/strong> of Tsawout First Nation, a community organizer in his own right who teaches drumming, chanting and dance to young people in his community. Patrick opened the event with a powerful voice and drumming of the \u201cUnity Song\u201d, which set the tone of spiritual strength and solidarity that characterized the event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roughly 30 people attended this year\u2019s AGM, held on 24 November at the Lutheran Church of the Cross, where the VMS Annual Report was presented. The AGM theme of\u00a0Faith & Activism\u00a0was addressed by keynote speaker\u00a0Hanan Abousaleh. Hanan spoke of her … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"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=1801"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1806,"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1801\/revisions\/1806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victoriamultifaith.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}