As a new year dawns, we want to take a moment to reflect on the year that was. The past twelve months were busy with much happening and we wanted to share some of the challenges our communities face and the gratitude we feel for what readers and supporters like you have helped us accomplish. Here’s some highlights from 2025.
Need for Religious Literacy Has Never Been Greater
At Encounter, we often observe the growing need for religious literacy in the people who reach out to us, be they police services, community groups, or teachers. There is an eagerness in so many to better understand their neighbours and their world.
But this growing need is also evidenced by compelling (and troubling) data that demonstrates starkly the need for better understanding. The graph below shows religious hate crime data compiled by Stats Canada. As you can see, a relatively stable period ended in 2016 when religious hate crimes suddenly almost doubled in 2017. Since then, we have never quite returned to those saner levels. Shockingly, the most recent 2024 data reveals more hate crimes for that single year than all of 2014, 2015, and 2016 put together.
Source: Brian Carwana; Statistics Canada
I tried to compile a similar chart for the USA but hate-crime data in the USA is not as systematically collected and has undergone major changes in methods of counting and reporting that make year-to year comparisons unreliable. However, the bits of data that do exist suggest a similar concerning trend.
Adding to this story is that our societies are becoming more diverse all the time. The growing presence of religious minorities makes the values of pluralism ever more important.
Encounter’s Contribution
Our mission every day is to advance these pluralist values by undertaking activities that promote understanding and connection. We are privileged in our work to see how education and encounters cause fears to ebb and understanding to increase, and that people can grow closer to colleagues, classmates and neighbours of different traditions.
Source: Canva.com
Some highlights from the year include:
- Participants in our programs spent 21,000 hours being educated through classes, online conversations with practitioners, and visits to sites of worship. We are a small organization but this impact is significant. For this, we owe much thanks to our hosts and friends at so many places of worship who welcome our participants into their sacred spaces.
- Just under a quarter of these hours were with high school students. We brought busload after busload of students to houses of worship. Instead of seeing these spaces as an unknown black box, students were able to experience these sites as sacred, filled with history and stories, and kind and caring people whose religion calls them to support their members and their broader communities. These outings are very popular – teachers tell me that at parent-teacher evenings, these trips are always noted by parents as something their teen really enjoyed and found fascinating. While we may not always see the ripples these visits make in the world, it is always gratifying to hear of their impacts. We are so appreciative of the trust of these teachers and the eagerness of the students.
- We launched a 3-day Police Religious Literacy program that was a huge success. We had police from several police services and were thrilled to have 100% of attendees give the program the highest overall rating and equally say they would recommend it to their peers. Our hope is that as this program expands, it will give police officers the tools and perspectives they need to serve diverse communities with respect and confidence. This program required a lot of background work to tailor the content to suit police needs which was only possible due to the support of our donors and the kindness of some savvy police officers who were generous with their time and expertise.
Source: Brian Carwana
- We ran two 4-day mini-Discovery Week like programs for university students. These students were from four American schools who came to Canada to learn about these diverse communities. The universities included one historically Black college, which we were delighted to host, as well as three midwestern schools.
- We designed and developed a new workplace video on religious literacy that just came out towards year end. We have sent the video to a few contacts to get first impressions. We are excited about its potential and grateful for donor support which helped fund this project.
- We were honoured and pleased to give our talk on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict again and again this year, including to police and to numerous public audiences. The response has always been very positive and it has been heartening to see so many approach this difficult issue with a desire to learn more.
It was an honour this year for Encounter to receive some recognition. This came partly through media interviews. When Pope Francis died, Encounter was asked to do four different television interviews. The most substantial on CBC News Network is here. And I was deeply honoured to have been nominated by Richard Chambers and the folks at the Canadian Interfaith Conversation for the King Charles Coronation Medal. Receiving this award on behalf of Encounter, our team, and supporters was both exciting and humbling. I am grateful for the work Encounter has enabled me to do these many years.
Pope Francis waving. Source: Wikipedia Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic
For You and Looking Forward
We’re excited for 2026. We already have many school bookings and events with the police. We are also offering a brand new Winter Series that is open to the public. If you’ve not signed up, take a peek as these four weekly talks in January and February will cover some exciting topics from the perspectives of many religions (including texts, soundscapes, sacred spaces, and holidays). They are comparative classes where putting religions beside one another helps their distinctive traits to stand out. All the classes are online during these cold months. Our Discovery Week has just recently sold out! That said, the waiting list at this point is quite short and we always get cancellations so if you’re interested, there is wisdom in signing up soon.
Image: Discovery Week 2025. Source: Brian Carwana.
We have new free resources on creating welcoming environments for Buddhists and Christians as well as the 2026 version of our popular annual holiday guide that lists and briefly explains all the religious holidays for the year.
A few final notes. First, we really appreciate you sharing our blog and newsletters with anyone you know. Our programming hours noted at the top of this blog is one measure of our impact but we also have many folks who read our work throughout the year. Feel free to send the newsletter to those you think may be interested in what we share!
And last, just a small teaser. Within the next couple of months, we will be announcing a new opportunity. It won’t be for everyone but for those who are interested, it will be a significant opportunity in experiential learning. There will be more to say on this shortly.
Source: Canva.com
I want to close with a thank you to all of those of you who donate, both those offering one-time gifts and our wonderful monthly contributors! It really makes a difference so much thanks!
Without you, there would be no Encounter, no visits with high school students, no police program, and no talks on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We are grateful for you all.
A good 2026 to you and yours.
