ACROSS BOUNDARIES is an educational institute whose goal is to increase knowledge and understanding of religious faith traditions, their history, practices and place in the contemporary world through research, publications and public forums.

Reflecting the multifaith character of contemporary Canadian society and Canada's openness to the world, it brings the diverse wisdoms of the world's religious traditions to bear on current global ethical, cultural, social, economic and scientific issues.

ACROSS BOUNDARIES is a Canadian-based organization with an international scope. Drawing, among other sources, on the richness of Canadian multifaith experience and expertise, ACROSS BOUNDARIES offers thoughtful individuals in Canada and throughout the world a fresh perspective on global issues. The Institute's focus ranges from culture and the arts to public affairs and science, from international development and the economy to ethics and society.

• To deepen public knowledge about religious traditions and practices and about the relationships among them through the sponsorship and cosponsorship of regular lectures, seminars, mini-courses and research in relevant academic disciplines, and through the development of a variety of study materials for secondary and postsecondary curricula for religious groups and for the general public.
• To promote dialogue and mutual understanding among different religious traditions, and between religious and secular visions of the world through the publication of a bimonthly magazine, Voices Across Boundaries, which will treat public matters and current events from a perspective of faith, and matters of faith and religion in a publicly available way; and by assuming the publication of Canada's only existing multifaith periodical, Vox Feminarum, a twice-yearly magazine focusing on feminist spirituality.
• To provide a forum for the discussion of contemporary issues in the context of diverse religious and secular perspectives through the creation of a website that will serve as an information source on religious topics and multifaith dialogue, provide links to multifaith groups and activities around the world, and promote the Institute's educational activities.
• To provide support for and to encourage networking among people active in interfaith work by sponsoring a multifaith conference once every two years on a topic of broad interest to people from a variety of faith backgrounds, and by publishing selected conference proceedings in book form, on CD-ROM, or in Voices magazine.
• To provide shared spiritual experiences for people representing a variety of religious practices by sponsoring a multifaith summer retreat once every two years for people interested in deepening their mutual understanding through exchange, discussion, ritual, prayer and play.

As a multifaith organization, ACROSS BOUNDARIES does not find its unifying force in adherence to a single religious tradition. Participants in the Institute's activities represent a variety of traditions, and, while hoping to reach some common understanding, seek neither to blur the boundaries between traditions nor to convert any of these traditions to a single vision. Rather, the Institute is established with the intention of increasing knowledge and encouraging communication and cooperation across these boundaries - across faith traditions, across cultures, across spaces, across the traditional divide between the religious and secular realms.

• intellectual honesty and rigour;
• a deep commitment to interfaith dialogue and dialogue between religious and secular visions of the world;
• an understanding that faith traditions are best represented by their practitioners, that participants in the Institute's activities speak out of a deep rootedness in their practice of a faith tradition, and that no individual speaks for a faith tradition as a whole.

Intellectual Honesty and Rigour

Interfaith Dialogue and Dialogue between Religious and Secular Visions of the World

Faith Traditions