CCCB staff member honoured by the Canadian Council of Imams: Mr. Kyle Ferguson
Monday, July 29, 2019
At its Third Annual Dinner on 7 May 2018, the Canadian Council of Imams honoured Mr. Kyle Ferguson, Advisor for Ecclesial and Interfaith Relations with the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB). He was awarded for his interfaith outreach and his friendship with the Council of Imams. Mr. Ferguson likewise serves as the Secretary for the CCCB Commission for Christian Unity, Religious Relations with the Jews, and Interfaith Dialogue, which assists in coordinating the eleven dialogues sponsored by the CCCB, including eight ecumenical and three interreligious. Two other recipients were also honored at the gala: the Honourable Linda Jeffrey, Mayor of Brampton, Ontario, and Dr. Aliya Khan, Professor of Medicine at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. The CCCB congratulates Mr. Ferguson for his exceptional and tireless work in ecumenical and interfaith ministry.
During February 2017, the CCCB Commission had received representatives from the Canadian Council of Imams, bringing together religious leadership from the two respective communities in order to discuss the importance of dialogue, to reflect on how the two faith communities can be of greater support to each other as faith communities and in service of Canadian society, and to discern possible new avenues for a more formal and concrete relationship between the Council of Imams and the CCCB. In turn, the Council of Imams hosted the CCCB Commission in Toronto during December 2017 to further deepen the sharing and relationship. In May 2018, the Executive Committees of the CCCB and of the Council of Imams agreed in principle with a Memorandum of Understanding whereby Bishops and Imams will enter into a more formal arrangement for a one-year period to discuss how best to strengthen and improve Catholic – Muslim collaboration in Canada. Catholic Bishops already collaborate with the Council of Imams in advocating on important national social and moral issues such as the dignity of human life and freedom of religion.
As part of its series “A Church in Dialogue”, the Commission in 2015 issued a document entitled Catholics and Muslims in Canada: Believers and Citizens in Society.
