South Bay Interfaith Dialog meeting January 13th

On January 13th, I went to a South Bay Interfaith Dialog meeting at the Pacifica Institute. This is a Turkish-American commumity organization promoting cross-cultural awareness, attaining peace with their neighbors and providing a meeting place where people of all walks of life can interact with each other.

There were twenty seven attendees including representatives of Methodist, Buddhist, Islamic, Unitarian, Lutheran, Baptist, Jewish, Episcopal, Christian Science, Wiccan communities and organizaitons, plus a Habitat for Humanity interfaith coordinator and a County Human Relations Commissioner.

This meeting is primarily a post-Parliament event to talk about how to continue as a partner city. Andy shared the slide show on "Developing an Interreligious Community: How Silicon Valley Used the Partner City
Process". The slides are available at

There was a great deal of discussion about what being a Partner City might look like and also what the South Bay actually needs/wants in the way of interfaith dialogue and cooperation. The next lunch meeting will be on 2/11.

There will some announcements:

This Sunday evening, 1/17 at the Levy Family Campus of the JCC there will be an opening for Holocaust Stories of Redemption, a traveling exhibition from the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.

Habitat for Humanity proposes doing a bay area interfaith home build.  It would be a house sponsorship and joint build. It takes about $50,000 and the build would be in 2011.

Rowan Fairgrove