Providing Hospitality
at the Interfaith Main Post Chapel
The Center holds its own interfaith services and events at the Chapel, including an annual Interfaith Memorial Day Service, a Gathering of Blessings each fall, meditation groups, frequent ‘potluck & program’ evenings, and hopes to repeat a first interfaith fair.
- The Chapel, busy seven days a week, is available to the public for weddings, memorials, special ceremonies, retreats, and workshops. Income from Chapel use pays over half the cost of keeping it open.
- Renowned for its acoustics, the Chapel hosts music concerts and has access to a professional recording studio in the basement.
- The Center hosts receptions & lectures for visiting religious leaders.
- New congregations have successfully used the Chapel for their startups. Currently St. Peter’s Episcopal Church (San Francisco) is renovating its own property and is worshiping at the Chapel on Sunday mornings, 8:00 am and 10:00 am.
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Developing Local & Global Relations
Since the turn of the century the Interfaith Center has collaborated pro-grammatically with more than 50 sectarian, ecumenical, and interfaith groups on dozens of programs.
- The Center circulates an electronic calendar & newsletter of San Francisco-Bay Area interfaith activities to more 1,500 religious leaders.
- The Center is a founding Cooperation Circle of the United Religions Initiative (URI), participates in the Parliament of the World’s Religions Partnership Cities program, has working relations with half a dozen other interfaith networks, and led in organizing URI’s first North America assembly and North American Interfaith Network’s 20th anniversary NAINConnect.
- Center staff and board members are active in North American Interfaith Network, the Parliament of the World’s Religions, URI and other interfaith networks.
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Creating Interfaith Learning Environments
& Resources
Grants and generous donors have allowed the Center to shepherd numerous projects, workshops, and resources. The Center has published One World, Many Voices – An Interfaith Song Book (2002), Sacred Spaces – 2004 Interfaith Sacred Space Design Competition (2004), and Shared Wisdom – Developing Grassroots Interfaith Relationships (August 2004).
Other Center projects include: What Do You Believe? (a 50-minute film based on 300 interviews with teenagers); Lost and Endangered Religions (including an academic conference Harran: At the Crossroads); a project gathering supplies for Iraqi children; and a course about ‘interfaith literacy’ being presented in seminaries, congregations, and special gatherings.
Renovation plans for the Main Post Chapel include the creation of 25 new stained-glass windows built around shards of glass gathered by U.S. Army Chaplain Frederick McDonald in 1944-45 from European sanctuaries suffering from war.
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Securing Sacred Space
In everything at the Interfaith Center, the hope is that we respect each other and the Spirit so that the time and space we share is held safe and sacred. The words below suggest our intuitions about creating sacred space. Space becomes sacred...
When it honors those who came before us and
provides safe harbor today,
When it reminds us of larger realities and leads us to inner truths,
When it cradles the musician's prayer and the poet's melody,
lifting our hearts,
When being there proves healing, nourishing and satisfying. Sacred space for all peoples and faiths is secured...
When the door is open to all, in mutual respect and good will,
When every sacred symbol and spiritual story is welcomed,
When the truths that nurture us do not hinge on making others wrong, When - bridging culture, race, and faith to be human with each other - We creatively appreciate life's blessings and
Work collaboratively to improve life for all.
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