Interfaith Center at the Presidio of San Francisco:

In a literal sense, Interfaith Center at the Presidio is a set of relationships that begin in the Bay Area in northern California and reach around the world. Nearly 20 regional interfaith organizations form the membership of Sponsoring Organizations supporting the Center, many of them with representatives on the Board of Directors. Individuals frequently ask how they can be involved with the Interfaith Center, since there is no congregation or personal membership. The best way is to become involved in the interfaith activities the Center organizes and sponsors is to contact Paul Chaffee (mail:paul@interfaith-presidio.org), the Center's executive director who will be happy to talk to you about getting involved.

Sponsoring Organizations

Interfaith Center Sponsoring Organizations are groups from the Bay Area that have an interfaith constituency and purpose. Sectarian groups are welcome participants at the Center, but an interfaith identity is what characterizes Sponsoring Organizations. Bay Area interfaith groups interested in a closer relationship with the Interfaith Center are invited to contact executive director Paul Chaffee. (e-mail: paul@interfaith-presidio.org)

Current Sponsors include:

Ahimsa
Alameda Interfaith Network
Bay Area Cultural Connections
Berkeley Area Interfaith Council
California Institute for Integral Studies
EURIMA (Expressing URI in Music & the Arts)
Graduate Theological Union
Ik Onkar Peace Fellowship
Immortal Chaplains Foundation
Institute of World Religions
Interfaith Council of Contra Costa County
Japanese-American Religious Federation
Marin Interfaith Council
Napa Interfaith Council
Northern California Interreligious Conference
Oakland Coalition of Congregations
Rossmoor Interfaith Council
San Francisco Interfaith Council
The Cultural Conservancy
Tri-Valley Interfaith Council
URI San Francisco Peninsula Circlel
Vietnamese Interfaith Council of California

Affiliate Relations

The Interfaith Center at the Presidio is a member of the North American Interfaith Network (NAIN), an organization of grassroots interfaith agencies in Canada and the United States. Staff and board members from these organizations meet for an annual summer conference. NAIN can be contacted at www.nain.org.

The Interfaith Center is also affiliated with the United Religions Initiative (URI) as a "cooperation circle." This networks the Center with over 200 similar circles around the world, a figure that grows each month. The purpose of URI is to promote enduring, daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence and to create cultures of peace, justice and healing for the Earth and all living beings. URI can be contacted at www.uri.org.

The Center is an active supporter of The Bridge, a URI cooperation circle in the Bay Area with the express purpose of providing local support for both URI and the Parliament of the World's Religions, two of the world's largest grassroots interfaith organizations.

At the 1993 Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago, dozens of leaders from different religious, spiritual, and indigenous traditions joined hands and signed a statement called Toward a Global Ethic - An Initial Declaration. The Interfaith Center at the Presidio stands firmly within the shared commitment of that document, which states in part...

We are interdependent. Each of us depends on the well-being of the whole, and so we have respect for the community of living beings ... We must treat others as we wish others to treat us. We make a commitment to respect life and dignity, individuality and diversity, so that every person is treated humanely, without exception...

In the broadest sense of affiliation, the Interfaith Center is connected to all faith and interfaith communities who share these convictions.