An Across Boundaries team is producing Bending Spears, a documentary on peace and reconciliation efforts in northern Uganda, in which Christian and Muslim leaders are playing a large role. Team members include longtime African aid worker Dave Klassen and award-winning journalist Rick Gamble, who have collaborated on two previous documentaries on Africa. The team is filming in Uganda and southern Sudan in July 2007. Information on the project will be posted here as it becomes available.

ABMI’s financial situation does not currently allow it to publish its two magazines, Voices Across Boundaries and Vox Feminarum, or carry out most of its other activities. Selected back issues of the magazines are still available from ABMI.

From October 20 to 22, 2006, some 700 delegates gathered in Edmonton, Alberta, to grapple with the problem of violence in the name of religion and to suggest steps for building world peace. Organized by the John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights, the conference featured 35 speakers from around the world. ABMI was a co-sponsor of the conference, arranging for a number of the speakers, conducting youth sessions and producing the conference report.

ABMI was a co-sponsor of this global conference, which brought together more than 2,000 people from 84 countries. The conference represented an initiative by the religions of the world to respond in a comprehensive way to the challenges posed by the events of September 11, 2001.

"Safe, Sacred or For Sale? The Politics and Spirituality of Water"
Read more here.

Across Boundaries published a Case for Support outlining why and how organizations and individuals should/could contribute to the Institute's efforts.

Distinguished Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars discuss creation in the Abrahamic faiths. The conversation leads to provocative exchanges on topics as diverse as the ethical implications of science and feminist undertones in the Qur'an. Highlights to appear in Voices Across Boundaries v.2 #2.

"Community-To-Go: Shifting Attachments in a High-Speed World"
Contents here.

"Cross Stitches: the Multi-faith Challenge"

In preparation for "Fresh Designs: Young Women's Voices" (Vox 3:4), the editors issued a call for submissions of poetry, essays, short fiction, artwork and reviews from women aged 16 through 26.

A substantial portion of "Cross Stitches: the Multi-faith Challenge", (Vox 3:3, Spring 2004) will be devoted to creative work and spiritual autobiography by writers in minority faith communities. The CMF grant will assist in editorial and marketing outreach to those communities, and in translating material into English for publication.

After many many delays, the second issue of Voices Across Boundaries is finally on its way to our very patient subscribers. "Designer Babies: The Manipulation of Human Life" is chock full of good reading (including highlights from the panel discussion at the Voices launch, "Is Religion the Problem?" Find out more here.

"Threadbare: Economic Realities"

Titled "Bloodshed often comes easier for those who believe God is on their side," Douglas Todd's review of the first issue of Voices Across Boundaries appeared on page A7 of the Vancouver Sun.

Three of the panelists from the Voices' launch event, Charles Taylor, Thupten Jinpa and Michal Shekel, discussed the theme of the first issue with Mary Hynes on CBC Radio One's Tapestry.

If you missed it, it's available in Real Audio on the CBC website.

Highlights from the original discussion are in the second issue of Voices Across Boundaries. Order yours today!

The theme of Vox 3:1, FAMILY HEIRLOOMS, was suitably celebrated with a performance by Marilyn Färdig Whiteley of her own play about the wife of the Methodist John Wesley. Whiteley, an independent scholar and church historian specializing in the study of Methodist women, provides a vivid picture of the early Methodist movement through the unconventional lens of the founder's wife.

Publication of the inaugural issue of Voices Across Boundaries was marked with a launch at McGill University in Montreal. You can read more about this issue, the theme of which is KILLING FOR OUR BELIEFS, here.

Following the launch, IS RELIGION THE PROBLEM? was vigorously debated by a panel consisting of Charles Taylor (Northwestern University, Chicago), Farhang Rajaee (Carleton University, Ottawa), Thupten Jinpa (Institute of Tibetan Classics, Montreal), Rabbi Michal Shekel (Temple Har Zion, Toronto) and Ronald Beiner (University of Toronto) before an audience in the Leacock Auditorium.

The discussion was chaired by Sadia Zaman of Vision TV and co-sponsored by the Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill, the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill, and the Institute of Canadian Jewish Studies, Concordia.

Both well-attended events were open to the public and admission was free.

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