CIC Breakfast’s Courage to Connect: Calls for Authentic Relationships

At a recent breakfast gathering hosted by the Calgary Interfaith Council, the FCJ Centre was invited to take part. Two FCJ Centre staff members and two FCJ Sisters attended, joining guests from various religions and Christian denominations in a shared call to embrace the courage needed to build genuine and transformative connections across faiths, cultures, and communities.

The keynote speaker, Dr. Tinu Ruparell, Associate Professor of Classics and Religion at the University of Calgary, began by expressing gratitude for the council’s ongoing efforts, stating, “I can think of no other organization, particularly in these fraught times, whose existence and good work is more important.”

Speaking to the event’s theme, “The Courage to Connect,” Dr Tinu reflected on both the promise and difficulty of reaching across boundaries in an increasingly divided world. Drawing on Aristotle’s concept of courage as a virtuous middle between cowardice and rashness, the talk emphasized that authentic connection requires not just goodwill, but a deep openness to vulnerability, humility, and mutual transformation.

“Relationships across language, culture, religion, and history are not just icing on the cake -they are the sustaining bread of our lives,” Dr Tinu noted. “We become most human, most authentically ourselves, when we connect to the Other: both transcendent and imminent, in each other.”

While celebrating the value of simple acts of connection, like a shared cup of tea or kind words in a grocery line, Dr Tinu challenged us to go further. “Sometimes interfaith events can become a bit self-congratulatory,” he warned. “True courage means letting down our defenses and being willing to face our own insecurities and failures.”

Citing historical examples such as the Salt March led by Mahatma Gandhi and the Selma civil rights protests, Dr Tinu described the “paradox of weakness,” in which the most profound acts of courage come through vulnerability and nonviolence. “Courage is found in kindness, compassion, and perhaps most of all, vulnerability,” he said. “It is the courage to truly love.”

The talk closed with both a challenge and a prayer: to continue working not only toward peace and harmony, but toward a more courageous, honest, and human future. “Let us pray ardently that we never face violence for our convictions,” Dr Tinu concluded. “But let us also pray and work with equal fervor to become the kind of people who would be ready if that day ever comes.”

The CIC breakfast gathering highlighted the essential role of community and interfaith collaboration in an era marked by division and uncertainty. Through both celebration and reflection, the event called us to not just to feel connected, but to be changed by that connection.