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The essays in this volume deal with the relationship between living religious traditions in Canada and the fabric of Canadian society. Canada is a pluralistic society, ethnically and religiously. How are these two pluralisms related? Their connection is intimate, but never simple. For many years there could plausibly have been said to be a dominant Anglo-Canadian Protestant tradition, with other faiths and denominations being associated primarily with ethnic minorities. No doubt this would always have been a simplistic understanding, but today, as Canadian culture is increasing secularized, it is religion itself that the majority sees as a minority concern. Ethnic and religious loyalties pull together against a secular assimilation. Such a change leaves the "establishment" denominations with an unwanted identity crisis of their own, not the least part of which is due to an unfamiliar awareness of their own ethnic roots and histories.

Harold Coward is a professor of history and director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria.