World Religions Conference White Rock

  • Date & Time: Monday, November 17th, 2025 | 6:30 PM  8:30 PM
  • Venue: Star of Sea Community Centre
  • Address: 15262 Pacific Ave, White Rock, BC, V4B 1P7
  • Admission: Free 
  • Dinner: Complimentary East Indian Dinner will be served

Moderator

Jonquil Hallgate

Jonquil has been involved in Interfaith work for over 50 years. Her journey began through lessons learned from parents and service opportunities at church as a young girl.  Jonquil was involved in the inception of the Surrey Interfaith Council almost 30 years ago.The opportunity to meet, to learn from, to share with, and to be invited to participate in other people’s  Faith Communities has enriched her life immensely Jonquil has worked for decades in non-profit organizations that have supported people who live in poverty, who have been unhoused, perhaps experiencing substance use issues, fleeing violence, etc. 

More recently, Jonquil has worked supporting women, children and gender-diverse individuals to find appropriate housing and needed  services in Downtown Vancouver. Jonquil has also worked for different  environmental organizations and has been a working Board member of the Surrey Urban Farmers Market for more than 15 years. Jonquil has volunteered with many other organizations that she has been interested in throughout the years.The idea that ‘a stranger is a friend you haven’t met yet’ is a major principal in how she lives her life.

Speakers

Baha`i Perspective
Dr. Elaine McCeary 

Dr. Elaine McCreary, professor of international development, who served five years at the Bahá’í World Centre, and then back in Canada, as staff of the BC Ministry of Advanced Education, now retired.  She has since published two books to share with multi-faith audiences her love of research into Bahá’í Sacred Writings.

Christian Perspective
Deacon Richard

Rev. Mr. Richard Chau is an ordained Roman Catholic cleric serving as a permanent deacon at Holy Rosary Cathedral in downtown Vancouver. He is the appointed Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations Officer for the Archdiocese of Vancouver. In this role, he also serves as executive member at the Canadian Council of Churches’ Social Justice Commission and Multifaith Summit Council of BC. Before his ordination, he was an engineer by profession with forty-years of experience in I.T. software development and data analytics in the telecom industry in Australia and Canada. He taught at Trinity Western University and was a faculty member of BCIT’s School of Computing. He and his wife are thankful for their children and grandchildren. His faith journey continues to lead his family to live the life of Thanksgiving.

Islam Perspective
Mr. Naeem Ahmed Lakhan

Naeem Ahmed Lakhan was born in Pakistan, where he completed his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering before moving to Canada in 1997. He currently works as an IT Manager with a local private company. Deeply committed to community service, he is presently serving as the President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Greater Vancouver Area.

Outside of his professional and community responsibilities, Mr. Lakhan enjoys playing field hockey and cricket. His wife and two children are also active volunteers within the local Ahmadiyya community.

Sikh Faith Perspective
Ms.Sukhvinder Kaur Vinning

Sukhvinder Kaur Vinning is the CEO and founder of Ek Oh Ung Kaar Alliance (EOUK), a dynamic organization dedicated to building an intergenerational community that drives systemic change to combat poverty, food insecurity, racism, discrimination, and climate change. With 30 volunteer teams across the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley, EOUK provides meals, hampers, and rescued food to food hubs, shelters, Indigenous communities and Indigenous agencies – while keeping perfectly good food out of landfills and reducing environmental waste.

As former Executive Director of World Sikh Organization of Canada (WSO), Sukhvinder led Sikh community engagement with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and both Vancouver Walks for Reconciliation. She also co-produced the impactful short film It Matters: The Legacy of Residential Schools and launched WSO’s inaugural One Billion Rising event, raising awareness about the staggering reality that over one billion women worldwide face violence in their lifetimes.

Previously, as Vice President of the Multifaith Action Society, Canada’s oldest interfaith organization, she played a key role in developing the Kirpan accommodation policy for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, promoting cultural respect and inclusion. 

Born and raised in British Columbia, Sukhvinder brings a deep commitment and proven success in fostering trust, understanding, and collaboration among diverse communities and cultures.

Christianity (LDS) Perspective
Mr. Eden Engen

Eden and his wife, Tonya, have been married for 38 years and are the parents of four children and nine grandchildren. He has spent more than 30 years in the wealth management industry and enjoys coaching CrossFit in his spare time. Eden also serves as the stake president of the Surrey British Columbia Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, supporting eight congregations and nearly 3,000 members speaking Spanish, Portuguese, Hindi, Mandarin, Tagalog, and English.

Jewish Faith Perspective
Rabbi Arik Labowitz

Rabbi Arik Labowitz is a dynamic educator and leader committed to connecting people to the Jewish tradition in meaningful and relevant ways. Arik comes from a diverse Jewish background and especially identifies with couples and families who are looking for a connection to Judaism outside of a traditional synagogue setting.Arik comes from a family of rabbis and has spent most of his adult life in Jewish leadership roles. In addition to devoting years of study and practice to the Jewish tradition, Arik has gleaned wisdom from other spiritual traditions of the East and West. In the past two decades Arik has worked professionally with synagogues, small communities, and unaffiliated families and couples to help them all find a personalized relationship with Judaism. He has recorded two CDs of Jewish Music under the title Simu Lev, and has been privileged to produced CDs for several talented musicians as well.  

Hinduism Perspective
Mr. Shrinath Dwivedi

Shrinath Dwivedi has three Master digrees: English,Hindi&Pol.Sc. He taught in Indian and Canadian universities.He organized and participated in several national and international  interfaith, peace and literary conferences. He has been actively  involved, for more than thirty seven years,  in interfaith  movement in Canada. He is a poet, essayist, literary critic, social activist and journalist.  His six books of poems are in circulation and edited two anthologies. He writes in English and Hindi languages. He has been featured in major radio talks and telivision shows. He was invited by UNO in its Millennium Peace Conference-  2000 in New York and URI Global Summit  in Rio. He has been honoured and recognized for his contributions by Government , literary and  faith organizations. 

Program

  • 6.25pm Announcement
    • We would like to acknowledge with gratitude that we are on the unceded territory of the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations who have been stewards of this land for thousands of years.
  • 6:30 PM Recitation of the Holy Qur’an Rukshan Butt
  • 6:35 PM Welcome remarks by Dignitaries 
  • 6:45PM Introductory Remarks By
  • 6:45 PM Introduction to moderator

Speakers Panel (Time Allocated 10 minutes)

  • 6:50 PM Baha’i Dr. Elaine McCeary 
  • 7:00 PM Christianity  Fr.Augustine Obiwumma
  • 7:10 PM Islam Mr. Naeem Ahmed Lakhan
  • 7: 20 PM Sikh Faith Mrs. Sukhvinder Kaur Vinning
  • 7:30 PM Christianity LDS Mr. Eden Engen
  • 7:40 PM Judaism Rabbi Arik Labowitz & Cantor Michael Zoosman
  • 8:00 PM Hindu Faith Mr. Shrinath Dwivedi 

Question & Answer Session

  • 6:20 PM Concluding Remarks by moderator
  • 6:35 PM Vote of Thanks by Dawood Ahmad Malik, Regional Incharge Ansatullah BC, (Elders Organization) 

East Indian Dinner

Map

Registration