Dear Reverend Karen Lindquist, I was deeply inspired by the Sunday service on February 7, 2021, focusing on World Interfaith Harmony Week and the theme, “Engaging with the World: Interfaith Courage” with guest presenters Imam Jamal Rahman, Rabbi Anson Laytner, and Bahiyaa Ann Holmes Redding. Music and Indigenous prayers by SiSwinKlae Laurel Boucher were also beautifully moving, and helped bring prayer and ritual into the gathering in a natural and sacred way. The speakers presented aspects of Interfaith courage in these times, when we are all being required to find courage in the face of fundamental challenges. So many of us are losing loved ones, struggling with economic difficulties, and watching our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world suffer in ways we can hardly imagine. If the pandemic has done nothing else for us, it should certainly be helping us understand that we are all interconnected, and what happens to one of us happens to all of us. Your speakers approached the question of harmonious relations among faith traditions with emphasis on the courage it takes to Love our Neighbors, especially when they seem different from us, either superficially or because of some beliefs or customs. They each gave examples from their personal lives as well as from their scripture and beliefs (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) that help us understand not only the urgency of this Interfaith Path, but the difficulties of pursuing it, and the possibilities it presents for a harmonious and peaceful future on a healthy and thriving planet, where, as Ann Holmes Redding put it, “We are all at home here together.” May it be so! Thank you for all the work you and your community are doing to make this possible. With blessings and love, Sally Jo Gilbert de Vargas

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