host picture

Faces of Faith Red River students and CBC look at spirituality in daily life

Have you ever asked yourself how faith affects your daily life? Or what it looks like?

When you look around you, be it in a mall or an office, who are the faces of faith that you see? What are their stories?

These are the questions that CBC Manitoba has put to a group of students, all in their 20s and all second-year journalism students at Red River College.

These students are in the midst of learning how to report on the events that shape us, from politics to policing.

This challenge: To search for the spiritual in our secular culture.

Their assignment: Find some of these faces of faith, get to know them, and tell us their stories.

Here are some of those stories, told by curious young students for their own Red River TV (RRTV) newscast:

Goals for God

Please download the latest version of Flash Player to view this content.

Reporters: Tyler Esquivel and Ryan Kessler

Christian hockey players take their lead from a higher power, one above their coaches. But a decline in the number of teams in the Winnipeg Fellowship Hockey League now means you don't have to be a believer to join.

Hipsters in prayer

Please download the latest version of Flash Player to view this content.

Reporters: Amanda Thorsteinsson and Bethany Zacharias

Exposed pipes replace stained glass windows, the preacher is a local musician, and the church is so new that congregation members are designing its logo.

Welcome to Winnipeg's newest faces of faith: grassroots alternatives to established religious denominations. These "new kids on the block" are catching on so well, they're luring away members of the former "left-leaning" church of choice, the United Church.

Islanders on the Prairies

Please download the latest version of Flash Player to view this content.

Reporters: Mark McAvoy and Allison Pattison

Members of a small Christian congregation in Winnipeg's West End add a Jamaican flavour to their faith, nourishing their souls with a taste of the islands.

The Disconnected Catholics

Please download the latest version of Flash Player to view this content.

Reporters: Kyle Jahns and Brandon Logan

They are a handful of gay Winnipeggers who are deeply committed to their Catholic faith, but get their spiritual support from the more tolerant church down the road. How do they cope with their devotion to a denomination that doesn't approve of their sexual orientation?

The Synagogue Connection

Please download the latest version of Flash Player to view this content.

Reporters: Katherine Dow and Kristy Hoffman

It was more than just a wedding ceremony that sealed their bond to each other. When Arthur Blankstein and Kenneth Ure stood under the canopy at Winnipeg's Shaarey Zedek last year, they sealed their bond with their faith.

They are the first gay couple in Canada to be married in a conservative synagogue. It was an historic event that paved the way for other gays and lesbians committed to Judaism.

So why has no else walked that path since?

The Wiccans Among Us

Please download the latest version of Flash Player to view this content.

Reporters: Cindy Chan and Kirah Sapong

We're a long way from Salem, but Wiccans in Winnipeg still feel the historic heat of the burnings at the stake. That's why members of this religion are not often public with their beliefs and rituals. Still, they are firmly practising their faith.