For the past fourteen years, the Spring Interfaith Council has embodied a vision to bring unity and understanding to people of all religions, races, and ethnicities in our community. Three annual programs formed the basis of the early years of the organization – a community-wide Thanksgiving service in November, interfaith dialogue dinners in the spring, and a gathering of clergy leaders from all faith traditions in the fall.
These ways of cooperation continue and have expanded over the years to include
- This website
- A Facebook page
- A monthly newsletter of interfaith activities
- Support for special worship services such as “9-11 Memorials” and “Stand Up for Shabbat “
- A monthly Women’s Voices interfaith book discussion
- Interfaith participation in service projects such as making quilts or assisting legal permanent residents to complete applications for citizenship
- A Prayer Walk to pray for the needs of our community on the National Day of Prayer
We also adopted bylaws
and elected Board Members:
President: Nancy Agafitei
Vice President for Internal Communication: Linda Barry
Vice President for External Communication: Ooma Lakshmanan
Treasurer: Paulette Moore-Hall
Secretary: Julie Mahler
During the days of Covid-19 isolation, many of these events had to be cancelled or were transformed into a virtual format. As a recent example, view:
1) this Thanksgiving video compiled from the submissions of fifteen of our faith communities: https://tinyurl.com/SpringInterfaith2020
2) this video called a "Time of Remembrance" to remember those lost in our various faith communities during the time of Covid-19 pandemic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHVhmQTrviE
The Houston Chronicle wrote about our successful use of virtual programming during this period. You can read the article here.
We welcome your ideas about other programs and events we can sponsor. Please attend our planning meetings, or send us your suggestions to springinterfaithcouncil@gmail.com.