Since 2007, the Canadian Council of Churches, in the person of the General Secretary, has been involved in the annual global faith leaders summit to parallel G8 and G20 meetings and to inspire and challenge the G8 and G20 in such globe-changing directions as the fulfillment of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, including working towards the eradication of extreme poverty and such diseases as polio and malaria and improving maternal and child health world-wide.
In 2010, the denominations of the Canadian Council of Churches, along with 25 other faith based (including the Tony Blair Faith Acts Fellows) and secular organizations came together in a coalition named the Canadian Interfaith Partnership to host the 2010 Interfaith Leaders Summit in the year that the G8 and G20 were meeting in Canada. We were in line with previous Interfaith Leaders Summits but also introduced many refinements to the process. In 2011, 2012 and 2013, we consulted for the French, U.S. and U.K. summits.
This work just became the recipient of a major global award for ‘best practices in Interfaith Dialogue’. Out of a field of 150 applicants from around the world, the Canadian Interfaith Partnership (of which The Rev. Dr. Karen Hamilton, the General Secretary of The Canadian Council of Churches is the Past-Chair) received one of 7 global awards. The award was given by the Doha International Centre for Interfaith Dialogue on the occasion of their 10th anniversary.