Audio Peterborough’s Abraham Festival celebrates 20 years of interfaith fellowship

Peterborough’s Abraham Festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary this weekend.

“It is a gathering of the descendants of Abraham. Basically, Jews, Christians, and Muslims. We all have the same history; we all come through Abraham,” says Elizabeth Rahman, who co-founded the festival in 2003.

In 2003, Rahman only intended to hold a “one-off” celebration of the Abrahamic faiths. Rahman, who is Muslim, organized the first festival with two friends: one Christian (Catholic), and one Jewish.

“We found, by talking, we both had this vision for bringing the Abrahamic people together,” says Rahman, while reflecting on the initial conversation which led to the Abraham Festival. “But then, it was so popular that first year. And everybody said they wanted to get to know their spiritual cousins.”

The festivities of the Abraham Festival are open to everyone, including people from non-Abrahamic religions or those with no religious affiliation at all. “As people of faith, we want to put our beliefs into action: that is, to include everybody,” says Rahman.

You can learn more about this year’s events on the Abraham Festival’s website, or you can listen to the audio story below. The story first aired on Trent Radio.

Trent Radio’s Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Eddy Sweeney interviewed Rahman in advance of the festival this weekend. You can listen to Eddy’s story in the audio player above. And you can listen to more of Eddy’s work by tuning into 92.7 FM on Fridays at 12:00 noon.