The Interfaith Initiatives Department at InterFaith Works organizes events and other opportunities that promote the acceptance of faith and cultural differences, and provides chaplaincy services. Ensuring members of the Central New York community are aware of and educated about faiths and traditions other than their own is what makes Interfaith Initiatives unique.

Program Initiatives and Events

  • Provides interfaith chaplains who annually visit more than 2,000 individuals in hospitals, nursing homes and correctional facilities throughout Central New York.
  • Hosts education events and organizes outreach activities, e.g. Spiritual Care Day, Chaplains Roundtable and Daily Inspiration column published in The Post-Standard and on syracuse.com.
  • Coordinates local World Interfaith Harmony Assembly, Interfaith Dinner Dialogues, Spirit of America, Blessed Ramadan,  Beautification Through Interfaith Dialogue, Interfaith Youth Corps, and other interfaith programs.
  • Offers interfaith education and dialogue opportunities for chaplains and other members of the community, and curates the Celebrating the Sacred display.

Here is a video from the Celebrating the Sacred ceremony:

For more information about the Interfaith Initiatives Program, contact the Bishop Colette Matthews-Carter at (315) 449-3552, ext. 111, or email bishopcolettecarter@ifwcny.org.

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The Interfaith Initiatives Department, which facilitates the distribution of Clergy Parking Cards, has streamlined the card application process. The cards make it possible for area clergy to park free of charge at Syracuse hospitals nursing homes and correctional facilities while visiting congregants. An administrative fee of $50.00 is charged for a one-year parking card. InterFaith Works issues as many as 350 clergy parking cards each year.

The current application system enables InterFaith Works to receive information and data instantly – with the card ready to be sent when payment is received. This system streamlines the application process by enabling us to receive applications faster and eliminating data entry. To complete the entire application process online:

Step 1: follow this link for the secure online clergy parking card application system.

Step 2: follow this link to pay securely online with a credit or debit card.

If you prefer to print and mail in your application, follow this link to download a printable form.

Expect parking card delivery within five business days of receipt of both the application and fee payment.

Like a tree spouting new branches, InterFaith Works’ efforts to help meet food insecurity needs in Syracuse is blossoming into an unprecedented network of food pantries. The effort began last spring shortly after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and continued through the summer as a short-term project.
 
Working with the Food Bank of Central New York, InterFaith Works delivered 55,000 jugs of milk and 163,000 pounds of food to 20 Syracuse inner city churches and New American Groups that help those who are food insecure. During the deliveries, it became clear a long-term commitment was needed, and the Community Campaign for Love, an initiative of the agency’s Round Table of Faith Leaders, adopted the project and created a new program called Pantry Partners.
 
Today, the program supports faith partners, especially in the Black communities on the South and Near West sides, and New American nationality groups on Syracuse’s North, Near West, and South sides. Community Campaign for Love is assisting the Pantry Partners establish or expand their food pantries, build access with The Food Bank of CNY, and network with other food sources to eradicate food insecurity, including incubating some gardening efforts.
 
“The Pantry Partners are working out great, with a few hiccups. The system of the pantry hubs and sub-hubs, which are designed to cover the entire city, has had a great start,” explained Rev. George M. Jones, Community Campaign for Love co-chair and pastor of Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ in Syracuse. (See the distribution network map that shows hub faith communities that provide food to sub-hubs.)
 
“We’re looking forward to what the future will bring as these relationships mature; they will bring about a more effective and efficient way of satisfying the needs of our communities that suffer from food insecurity,” Rev. Jones added.
 
To learn more about the Community Campaign for Love, click here. The Community Campaign for Love is an initiative of InterFaith Works’ Round Table of Faith Leaders.
 
If you would like to support the Pantry Partners initiative, please click here.

The Beautification Through Interfaith Dialogue project, which is primarily funded through a grant from Islamic Relief USA, seeks to create greater community cohesion and understanding, through dialogue and service, across faith traditions. The program engages youth and adults from eight diverse faith communities, including two from Islam, throughout greater Syracuse. The youth are recruited from each faith community to serve as the core group for interfaith dialogue bridge building. Experienced and diverse facilitators trained by InterFaith Works serve as group facilitators, and one to two adults from each community assist the core group in landscaping and beautification efforts at each faith institution.

The project has established a multi-faith work team to beautify each other’s places of worship, and in so doing, serves as the basis of a program outcome to form relationships and create actions that will increase their ability to work in multi-cultural teams and to cross invisible boundaries within communities.

The participating youth experience each other’s worship services and so expand their understanding and appreciation of the rich complexities of other faith traditions. The group visits faith locations, identifies and plans together possible beautification improvements to the external structure and landscape of each building, be in an interfaith dialogue with each other for 20 hours, and then acts to beautify faith institutions and celebrate their actions.

 

About two dozen high school students and adult dialogue facilitators in InterFaith Works’ Beautification Through Interfaith Dialogue project hopped on a bus in early July that stopped at seven local houses of worship, beginning at the Temple Society of Concord where they were greeted by Rabbi Daniel Fellman, above, during a one-day whirlwind tour. Other stops on the tour included: the Islamic Society of Central New York’s Syracuse Mosque; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Syracuse; Congregation Beth Sholom – Chevra Shas; Syracuse South Asian Fellowship; BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir; and Masjid Isa Ibn Maryam.

Click here to visit the Round Table of Faith Leaders page.

Spiritual Care Day offers opportunities for organizations and institutions of all types to recognize the spiritual support their caregivers and the ministry that caregivers provide. All spiritual caregivers are welcomed: chaplains, other members of the clergy, lay leaders and volunteers offering spiritual care support services at hospitals, jails, congregations, nursing homes, academic institutions, etc. The annual InterFaith Works’ spiritual care event, typically held during the globally recognized Spiritual Care Week, offers professional development and networking opportunities for the area’s spiritual caregivers.

Held annually in October in observation of Spiritual Care Week, the 30th annual installment was temporarily delayed and held on January 28, 2021, as an online event due to pandemic safety precautions. The 31st annual event may proceed once again in person, tentatively scheduled for October 28, 2021, pending local, state and federal health recommendations later this year.