Around the world, people of faith are standing up for change in their spiritual experience and expression. Catholic teens are exploring archaeological sites for in-depth explanations of historical events, Evangelical Christians are supporting preservation of nature and building shelter for the homeless; Muslims are supporting sustainable farming and integrating their study communities. Jews are helping children experience the bond between nature and spirituality and vigorously defining their presence in new dialogue, and people of all faiths are mobilizing in pursuit of innovative response to the diversity of religious expression.
Religious leaders and clergy are finding themselves pressed to the limit with the demands of an ever increasing world community seeking answers to modern day questions that threaten the faith of their ancestors. We stand at a cross-roads of a new generation that combines the energy of exciting, aggressive thought of people from all walks of faith, whose passion and deep moral commitment are making a difference in a time of grave global threats.
The Interfaith Renewal Project has been designed to make tools available to people and organizations who wish to reaffirm their faith, and want to be a part of this growing movement. It explores viable paths in developing new approaches to the search for God and His purpose, while embracing many backgrounds of expression. To set aside dogma, prejudice and restrictions on opening the spiritual eye while protecting the traditions that have made us who we are in our respective communities for generations.
On this website, you can learn about how Interfaith Renewal is being explored by communities world-wide to help build the religious interfaith community movement. It is also a place for you to connect with others who are doing this important work and for you to share your own experiences.
Our proposals take four forms:
- The creation of an inclusive professional choral group for the restoration and renewal of classic music literature, hymns and anthems, and for the support and encouragement of faith-based musical expression.
- Educational tours to sites held to be holy by people of faith while sharing the experiences that will increase the scope of understanding for different expressions of prayer, approaches to teaching, and past as well as future development of tradition.
- To assist individuals and organizations who are actively seeking interfaith community development with a priority of preserving culture and tradition.
- The development of retreat space and study centers - from campgrounds to full campus facilities for the support and encouragement of religious leaders as well as adults who are just beginning the journey of faith.
On this website, you can learn about how Interfaith Renewal is being explored by communities world-wide to help build the religious interfaith community movement. It is also a place for you to connect with others who are doing this important work and for you to share your own experiences.
Over the past decade, more and more people from the world's great faith traditions have realized that caring for the faith community as a whole must become an important aspect of their religious identity and practice. But for many, there has been a hurdle standing in the way — an absence of facilities and workshops that teach what it means, and show what it looks like, to be a community-encompassing leader. And the absence of the images and stories - examples that really make a difference - has slowed the growth of the movement, and prevented many from taking action on their spiritual intuition that something needs to change if we are to draw all people of faith closer together.
This set of projects is designed to be suitable for a wide range of participants — from seminary students, rabbis, priests, pastors, and imams to adults who want to think more deeply about what they believe and how they can move closer to our Creator.
Interfaith Renewal is developing important studies to help people from diverse religious backgrounds to think critically and faithfully about what their tradition asks of them in relation to people of diverse experience. And the studies being developed are a valuable asset to the process of active engagement in change. We encourage you to share your experiences as well as your questions and critiques. Your belief will be enlarged and your perspective deepened as you reflect about what you believe your tradition teaches you about who your neighbor truly is — and help you decide how you will respond to the spiritual needs and experiences of others.
