Each year in Thurston County, there are persons who die and whose remains go unclaimed. Interfaith Works creates space to honor these lives through an Interfaith Day of Remembrance.

This annual recognition is a time to honor life and bring dignity to those who have died without family support.

We also recognize the lives of those persons who have died by suicide in the past year and persons who have died while experiencing homelessness.

MONDAY
November 1, 2021
2:00 pm
Virtual Event Live Streamed on Facebook

Every summer we gather to appreciate those who have gone above and beyond for our community. This sweet event focuses on awards for those who have performed outstanding service to their community.
Congratulations to this year's winners…

• Business of the Year - Rainshadow Running
• Faith Community of the Year - First United Methodist Church
• Volunteer of the Year - Erin Chase, Director, Bowl of Hope
• Organization of the Year - Intercity Transit
• Lifetime Achievement - John Terranova
• Heart and Soul - Mary Wolfskill Ybarra

Interfaith Works partners with regional interfaith organizations and Muslim faith communities to sponsor a free viewing window of the documentary, "American Muslim," an award-winning documentary by New York-based film-maker, Adam Zucker, about five Muslim Americans living in New York during the infamous "Muslim Ban" under President Trump.

The event featured a free screening window followed by an online panel with American Muslims from regional faith communities discussing their reaction to the film and life as a Muslim in our part of the world.

Interfaith Works partners with Temple Beth Hatfiloh to provide a week of fun for kids in grades 2-6.  Each day the kids gather and experience interactive learning from community members of various faith traditions sharing in song, dance, craft, and story.

Interfaith Works collaborates with Learning Right Relations and Justice Washington to welcome the House of Tears Carvers from the Lummi tribe as they embarked on a cross-country voyage to deliver a totem pole to President Biden. The totem pole journey, known as the “Red Road to DC’’, made stops at numerous sacred sites, including Bears Ears, Chaco Canyon, Black Hills, Standing Rock.

This event was an outdoor gathering at Percival Landing for a ceremony that featured prayers and messages from regional tribal leaders, reflections from the carvers, and an interfaith, community blessing of the totem pole and the carvers themselves.

Thurston Climate Action Team and Interfaith Works teamed up for an interfaith celebration of Earth. We shared in songs, prayers, and reflections from speakers who stand within various wisdom traditions as we reflected upon our shared home. There were small groups following the main presentation with time and space for taking action through various opportunities related to climate change.

More specifically, they work to dismantle Islamophobia and curb the harmful effects of religious prejudice.  But note the expansive language in the mission statement...."for the common good of our children, our planet and ourselves."  Prejudice, religious bigotry, and racism diminish the lives of those persons who suffer the focus of such forces, for example Muslims suffering from Islamophobic acts.  Yet this mission statement is expansive enough to name that those persons that embody religious bigotry and enact acts of Islamophobia also suffer.  This is a pervasive insight of the world's wisdom traditions.....we are connected, and as it goes for you, it goes for me as well.

Yet we forget this basic wisdom.  In the rush of consumerism and the marketed fear of scarcity, we forget.  And relationships are the way back.

Paths to Understanding knows that real, human relationships change hearts.  To meet a Muslim and hear their story, to share food with a Muslim, or even to pray shoulder to shoulder with a Muslim builds relationship.  And while we might think of relationships as social affiliation, it is also an awareness of our interconnectedness at a spiritual level.

It is really difficult right now to do this kind of work, but it is good to remember and begin preparing for a time when we can regather and practice the essential skill of connecting.  And as I concluded the interview yesterday I shared with Terry and Aneelah to support and partner with them in this beautiful work of helping to restore the insight of interconnection, one relationship at a time.

In community,

Corey Passons,
Program Manager for Interfaith Relations