INTERFAITH FEAST: Sharing Stories of Interfaith Harmony On Saturday, February 4, 2023, Interfaith Community Sanctuary joined spiritual arms with NW Interfaith and hosted an afternoon homemade vegetarian meal in order to celebrate World Interfaith Harmony Week. Old friends, new friends, neighbors, and interfaith colleagues and practitioners came together to share personal stories of living in their faith, as well as their interfaith experiences and gleanings. Our table was blessed with the presence of religious leaders from different traditions, as well as lay people, and neighbors of our Sanctuary. Together, we enjoyed a wonderful vegetarian meal and shared heartfelt stories of our lives in faith, religious traditions, spirituality, interfaith friendship, and our journeys of rising above and through painful moments of history in which religion and spirituality were negatively targeted. How often do we get to share a meal and spend over two hours in meaningful and heartfelt sharing with a Rabbi, an Imam, a Spiritual Teacher from the Northwest Coast Salish People, a Reverend from the Mystical Path, a Cherag from the Inayat Order, as well as Catholics, Muslims, Pagans, Buddhists, Hindus, and those who define themselves as “spiritual, but not religious?” The beauty of this interfaith harmony celebration was that it was not a cerebral or academic occasion, but truly one of getting to know the other from the inside out – meeting through the heart, therefore meeting in the heart of one’s faith tradition, or spiritual practice. Finally, to lift the occasion from the heart to divine healing and connection, participants shared prayers and chants from their religious, faith, and spiritual traditions. The sacred feast was experienced in the body, the heart, and moved into the mysterious energetic realms of the mind and head. The feast was planned for two hours, but went on for three hours. In the end, folks were asking for more. Interfaith Community Sanctuary has been participating in Interfaith Harmony Week for as long as it has been in existence. Even though we practice and hold sacred space for honoring practices among unlimited faith traditions, as well as world religion education, participating in World Interfaith Harmony Week always injects renewed life and spirit into our community and our vision!

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