Religious leaders from a variety of faiths gathered in Abbotsford on January 12 for the 19th World Religions Conference, drawing more than 300 guests to discuss the theme “Fostering Hope in a Divided World.”
The event, organized by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat Abbotsford, brought together dignitaries including Deputy Mayor Simon Gibson, Chief Andrew Victor, James Vermeeren of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and school trustee Arsh Kaler. Maulana Asif Khan Mujahid represented Islam Ahmadiyyat as the keynote speaker, with Maulana Danyal Khalid Khan also in attendance.
The conference received an endorsement from the City of Abbotsford and coverage from the local interfaith society, Abbotsford News and Rogers Media.
Jamaat-e-Ahmadiyya British Columbia held its first World Religions Conference in 2006 in Victoria, where more than 310 attendees discussed the topic “Reconciling the Existence of God and Human Suffering” following the devastating tsunami in Indonesia.
Abbotsford, with an estimated population of 141,397, is the largest municipality in British Columbia outside Metro Vancouver. Statistics Canada has named it the most generous city in Canada for charitable donations for nine consecutive years.
The Abbotsford-Mission metropolitan area has the third-highest proportion of visible minorities in Canada, after the Greater Toronto Area and Greater Vancouver Area.
