’Tis the season for departmental parties, including the annual get-together for current and retired library staff members, held December 8 in the Davis Centre lounge. Among those celebrating were Joyce Cummings and Baiba Gomes Turner, both veterans of the Davis Centre library. Photo by Jonathan Morgan.

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Prof honoured for interfaith efforts

A media release from Renison University College

Renison professor M. Darrol Bryant has been honoured for his efforts in interfaith education with the Huston Smith Award for Interfaith Education from the Council of Interfaith Communities of the United States (CIC-US) Bryant (right, on the right, pictured with the award's namesake, Dr. Huston Smith) received the award at the 10th Anniversary gathering of Interfaith Grand River (IGR) in Kitchener on November 12.

The award is named for Dr. Huston Smith, popular author of the world’s most widely regarded book that introduces its readers to the major religions and faith paths in the world. The book was originally published in 1958 as The Religions of Man and has since been renamed The World’s Religions and has sold over two million copies around the world. Smith asked that he be able to select the first recipient of the award to be named in his honour, and chose Bryant, who is the Director of the Centre for Dialogue and Spirituality in the World's Religions at Renison University College, calling him his "heir apparent."

Professor Bryant has been teaching in Canada since 1967 and at Renison since 1973. He is the editor/author of several books, including Religion in a New Key, Muslim-Christian Dialogue: Promise & Problems, Woven on the Loom of Time and Out of Galilee: Christian Thought as a Great Conversation.

Bryant has been engaged in dialogue with Muslims in India, Turkey, Israel and North America; Buddhists in Korea, Japan and Tibetan Buddhists in India; Hindus, Veerashivites, Jains, Sikhs, and Christians in India; Catholic and Protestant Christians in Latin America, North America, Europe and Korea; Jews in North America and Israel, and African Christians in Kenya. For the past twenty years he has taken groups of students to India to “Encounter the Living Religious Traditions of India.” He has been a Visiting Professor at universities in India, Kenya, and Great Britain and lectured in Europe, Japan, and Latin America. Bryant was also the subject of a 2010 documentary by Canadian filmmaker Marjonneke entitled Traveling Guru.

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Friday notes

In celebration of the launch of commuter GO Train service from Kitchener to Toronto on Monday, a special GO train will be offering free rides on Sunday as it makes the run between Kitchener and Guelph. It promises to be a family-friendly event, with GO's mascot, GO Bear, on hand (on paw?) to charm the kids along with MPP John Milloy of Kitchener Centre, MPP Liz Sandals of Guelph, and Metrolinx officials. Eastbound trains depart the Kitchener GO station at Victoria and Weber at 1:00 and 2:15, and westbound trains will depart the Guelph Central GO station to make the return to Kitchener at 1:35 and 2:50.

And I have a correction to some numbers posted in Monday's Bulletin. The University of Waterloo weather station reported that the final precipitation total for November was 106.6 mm compared to an average of 82.3 mm, not 932.9 mm as I had originally (mis)quoted. That rather large figure was actually the annual precipitation average for the year ending November, which we were over in 2011 with 1047.6 mm, the third-most ever recorded by the end of November. The weather station noted in its report that we will need 140 mm of precipitation in December to beat the all-time annual record. When it rains, it pours, amirite?

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