Current Projects
The Interfaith Service Network (ISN) includes volunteers from churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and various other faith traditions to provide valuable community services. Building from and adding to established relationships across faith boundaries, we gain a better understanding of our common humanity. Some of our efforts include:
- Installed new roof on Eastside Ministries (Fort Worth, Texas) that provides food and clothing for the poor
- Feed the homeless breakfast every second Saturday of the month at Cathedral of Hope (Dallas, Texas)
- Beautification projects such as cleaning and painting the Dallas Holocaust Museum
- Co-Produce the annual Walking2Destiny Celebration in recognition of Juneteenth and African American heritage. The event provides shoes and backpacks for children, food, arts and entertainment, health related services, and educational awareness for hunger related issues.
- Co-hosted with the Dallas Holocaust Museum panelists from the Texas Holocaust and Genocide Commission in an open public discussion on the roles and tasks facing the Commission.
For more information on the Interfaith Service Network go to www.interfaithservicenetwork.org.
The Hunger Task Force was initiated by Memnosyne’s Interfaith Service Network in collaboration with the Journal for Inter-Religious Dialogue (irdialogue.org). It brings together religious, academic, business, non-profit, and young leaders in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to establish a multifaceted approach to eradicate hunger within the DFW community. Our approach is two-fold as we seek to address both immediate service needs and systemic causes of hunger. Ongoing meetings are held monthly as we form working committees for the purposes of hosting a Hunger Symposium in 2011 while we strategically work toward the following:
- Develop Young Leaders for Hunger Initiatives
- Inter-Agency Coordination in the Non-Profit Service Sector
- Organize for Educational and Governmental Action
- Conversation Circles Centering Around Immediate and Long-Term Needs
- Foster Leadership for the Mobilization of Religious and Faith-Based Communities
- Involve Skills and Leadership from the Business and Academic Communities
The Memnosyne Foundation conducted a five-day interfaith symposium of 40 spiritual leaders in Dallas, Texas in 2005. An award winning documentary film “Many Paths, One Source.” was produced about the event. Interfaith Education is an outreach project developed out of that symposium. An education teaching guide is being developed from one of the themes of the symposium. The 40 participating spiritual leaders were invited to submit essays with a focus on “Intolerance: What role does your spiritual doctrine, principles, practices and traditions play when confronted with intolerance?” A group of educators and scholars are developing the curricula. The curricula is based on the collective essays written by the spiritual leader who participated in interfaith symposium. The education teaching guide will be available to schools and globally as part of the Memnosyne Virtual Campus Project.
Todd Collier is the Director of the Center for Interfaith Inquiry.
He may be reached at drtoddcollier@memnosyne.org. |
