Jay Moore’s Speech at the Interfaith Community Breakfast, 2025
- August Adelman
- Jun 26
- 2 min read
By Jay Moore Presented by Norm Finkelberg
Good morning, everyone. I am so pleased to be here at the 50th Interfaith Community Breakfast and I’m grateful for the work that has gone into presenting this one and the 49 other Breakfasts in past years. When you say “Interfaith Breakfast” in this Region, people know exactly what you’re talking about and that’s a very significant thing.
If you go back half of those years to 2001, you will discover that an organization called “Interfaith Grand River” was formed. A few people in this town, folks from various religions and faith groups from around the world, knew it was time to address some very destructive forces in our community after a murder took place in Victoria Park that was racially motivated. A plan was made to hold the first meeting in September of 2001 and then, two days before that meeting, 9 - 11 occurred in the United States. The shock of the attack brought home the value and purpose of creating Interfaith Grand River with the goal of reducing and removing barriers among the people of different world religions and cultures who make their homes in Waterloo Region. Some of those who were at that first meeting twenty-five years ago are with us here today. Two of them are familiar to many of us: Sandy Milne and Brice Balmer.
Our goals have not changed. We meet monthly around a table where we listen to each other: Muslims & Jews; Hindus & Sikhs; Buddhists & Baha'i; Christians and Humanists. Why do we listen to each other? Because through listening we will come to know each other for it is in knowing each other that we will reduce and remove the barriers among us and contribute to peace in this world. Creating peace in this world is a very tall order but we can do our part in our small corner of this society.
And so we continue. If you’d like to help us, please send us an e-mail message at interfaithgrandriver@gmail.com or check us out on the web at InterfaithGrandRiver.org and see if you or your faith congregation would like to take a seat at our table and join in this good work all year round.
We at Interfaith Grand River happily congratulate the Interfaith Community Breakfast Committee for being the vanguard of this sacred work for fifty years, a very visible beacon to the Waterloo Region for the principles of building Interfaith bridges to help create peace in this world.
We are grateful to all of you for keeping the light burning brightly.
