All Seasons Church - Aurora Outreach Ministry as an Interfaith Minister.

(Also a minister as a International Certified Alcohol & Drug Counsellor and a Minister of Spiritual Counselling).

I give special thanks to All Seasons Church of Canada for recognizing and accepting my long interfaith seminary training and ordination from New York City Seminary and allowing me incardinated in Canada with All Seasons Church.

All Seasons as a Christian Church allows me the professional freedom and latitude to perform Interfaith work which would not exist in another religious setting. Without this I would not have been able to accomplish much of the pastoral work I have done over the years.

My professional ministry and experience is as a pastoral therapist and as an Interfaith Minister as mandated by All Seasons Church. I also have as part of my ministerial work the joy of being a trained and experienced editor and publisher. See below.

My ministry focus is one of personal pastoral care and of service to the community at large in terms of social service and justice: seeking harmony where there is diversity.

In a small measure I am also involved in seeking ‘green’ solutions to our environmental crisis by working with like minded leaders from the diverse religions the Toronto area has been blessed to have.

In the area of personal pastoral care I have two principal areas:

  • Pastoral care, counselling and support to members of the various 12 step Recovery Communities. My personal and professional involvement in the field of recovery over the last 25 years has gifted me with the opportunity to be of service to such individuals in their own seeking for the spiritual in life. In this capacity I both counsel and teach. I also perform spiritually based early recovery systems for those in the process of chemical withdrawal. In many cases over the years I have been asked to officiate life passage ceremonies such as marriages, funerals, baptisms and baby naming.

  • Pastoral care, counselling and support to those in relationship with someone of a different religion. My seminary training involved the skill of Spiritual Counselling from an interfaith perspective. That is reflected in my degree through the University of New York. In this capacity I am often called to officiate wedding services where it is important to the respective families that each religion be respectfully represented in a manner that complements each of the religions.

PERSONAL PASTORAL CARE STATISTICS FOR 2007

  • Personal Spiritual Counselling: 32 individuals

  • Educational Sessions: 9 Seminars on religions of the world

  • Weddings: 22

  • Funerals: 2

IN THE AREA OF SOCIAL SERVICE AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

  • I am editor of the Interfaith Unity Newsletter – an e-newsletter/website which publishes notices of interfaith and Interspiritual activities across Toronto and Area. We also cover events throughout Ontario, Canada and the U.S. The newsletter reports on new resources available to assist in Interfaith and Interspiritual activities. We handle news reports from around the world; publish original essays and report on new books and programs of interest to our readers.

    We currently have readers across the GTA and southern Ontario.

    The newsletter is received into the religious departments of major universities such as Universities of Toronto, Bombay, San Francisco, Harvard, Oxford, to name a few. Also other Interfaith based centres such as the Presidio in San Francisco and the Interfaith Centre in Edmonton. Interfaith Unity is a member of the North American Interfaith Network and the Toronto and Area Interfaith Council.

  • ­ Member of the working Committee for Toronto and Area Interfaith Council (T.A.I.C.) The working committee has been meeting for almost three years now to create an Interfaith Council for Toronto and area comprised of religious leaders from all the religious and spiritual groups in the G.T.A.

    The working committee organized a breakfast meeting for the Mayor of Toronto and the spiritual communities. The aim of this first breakfast meeting was to initiate a dialogue among leaders of city government and of faith communities to create a foundation for understanding, co-operation and partnership between the City of Toronto and the Faith Communities in the Toronto area.  Mayor Miller welcomed this initiative and, with the TAIC, sees this dialogue as the first step of many we can take together.

    Over 190 representatives from more than 40 faith communities and 15 interfaith organizations attended. In addition to Mayor Miller, some Councilors and city staff dealing with outreach and diversity were present.
    Among those attending the meeting from various religions were: Archbishop Thomas Collins, Bishop Colin R. Johnson, Archbishop Sotirios, The Very Rev. Lois Wilson, Imam Hamid Slimi, Pandit Roopnauth Sharma and Ven. Man Yee Fa Shi.

    We immediately began planning the next breakfast meeting for 2008. It was held on May 22 with attendance of close to 300. The theme was “Faith and Community Safety” Exploring the role of the Religious Sector in making the city safe. Speeches from Mayor Miller and one of his councilors as well as from two religious leaders led off to a panel discussion.

Interfaith and Environmentalism

  • I sit on a committee with a cross section of spiritual leaders from diverse religious and spiritual paths across Toronto and area, as well environmentalists and the top environmental architect in Toronto. It’s working title is: World Centre for Interfaith and the Environment (WCIE). This committee’s express goal is the establishment of an Interfaith and Environmental Centre in Toronto. This centre will serve as a Multi-faith centre of worship and teaching on individual religions as well as interfaith dialogue and activities. The centre will also present an opportunity for diverse religious and spiritual groups to join together in the cause of environmentally healing the planet. The structure itself will be a state of the art environmentally sound building.

Respectively submitted.

T Weller

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