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Interfaith Unity
has undergone considerable change in the over six and a half years we have
been publishing. We began as an e-mail listing up coming events in the
Toronto Area. This also included listings of regular events.
Later we began to
insert some news. Then book reviews, and resources. Our content began to
grow exponentially.
Our conversion from
plain text e-mails to HTML layouts complete with colour pictures marked
another leap forward. But we took caution in the words of our publisher,
"Form is nice but content is what is important!" So with effort
and increased networking our content increased as well - both in quantity
and in quality.
However, what did not
change, was the element that made Interfaith Unity's newsletter so unique
and popular. Every three weeks we have presented Invitations to:
“Come out, take part, get active, join in, be with...”
UNITY!
We now enjoy an ever increasing
subscriber list (over 1200 and growing!); equally expanding numbers of
contributors; and an ever widening area of topics and categories.
Our success has made for larger
newsletters. And the size is beginning to create problems. Those with slow
download capacity find the size difficult.
Our desire to present more and more
news - especially local news - is impossible in our current publication
form.
So we looked to tried and true
medium of expression: the traditional Community Newspaper. The kind
where everyone had a chance to get involved: letters to the editor;
pictures and stories of people you knew; correspondents who wrote for the
love not for the money; everyone with a camera is one of the
photographers!
Our community is just a bit bigger
than the traditional ones. Geographically it is primarily the Greater
Toronto Area. But in the areas of Interfaith and Inter-spiritual
activities it extends across our continent.
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That is why we are now proud members of NAIN (North American Interfaith
Network). Our editor attended the NAINconnect in San Francisco this
summer. There he found we were connected to a myriad of Interfaith and
Inter-spiritual organizations and individuals across North America.
And so the “community” is much
larger than the small ones of old when community newspapers came into
being. But the job is the same, report on activities; profile individuals
of note; publish ideas and challenges in the form of columnists; and above
all, open up a two way communication between the paper and its readers.
There were two basic rules in the
community newspapers of the 1950’s and ‘60’s:
“Publish everyone in town’s picture at least once a year.”
and, “Never touch anything that is too controversial.”
We won’t be able to keep the
first rule exactly, but we will endeavour to cover an event from every
organization in “town” at least once a year! (The catch here is they
have to report to us - through their own Interfaith Unity
Correspondent.)
The second rule is not a healthy one
for any publication. Our Interfaith Inter-spiritual
community is full of healthy confrontation. It is out of such interactions
that new thoughts are born, new perspectives are gained, and beliefs which
hinder growth and inhibit loving connection are challenged and finally
gently laid aside.
So now our invitation is not to
just attend the events we promote; you are now invited to get back to us
and report on the event! In short the invitation now is:
Get active, join in,
be a part of INTERFAITH UNITY!
Read
more about our plans in the next two editorial pages:
GO
TO PAGE 2
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