Multifaith Leaders Mark Loss

Last month, two soldiers in uniform were killed by men who declared themselves soldiers of Islam.  The Toronto Area Interfaith Council held a memorial service in a beautiful dark church in downtown Toronto.  This was held before the actual funeral of the soldiers and feelings were raw.  None of us knew if another soldier would be targeted in the near future.

We were from the Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Baha'i, Sikh and Buddhist faiths.  We talked and prayed and sang about our feelings to each other.  The temptation to blame other adherents of the faith of the killers was never taken up.  Here in Canada we stress individual guilt rather than group guilt but we knew that blaming the faith group would be tempting in our general society if it happened again.  We are challenged  by these murders because these soldiers were killed because they represented our whole country to the killers.

The loss of these soldiers affected all our communities.  These soldiers represented Canada for us and their loss could affect our sense of safety in our society.

We each mourned the soldiers in the language of our own faith and our common language of English.  We trusted each other.  Mourning together was offering kindness to each other.