Campus group formed to promote cooperation among different faiths
Sophomore Mark Wolfe launched the Interfaith Forum, a first year organization at the University of Indianapolis. The purpose of this organization is to encourage positive relationships among different faiths by strengthening personal faith values through education and service.
The forum is working in partnership with the Interfaith Youth Core, an organization that promotes religious pluralism in regards to combined service at a national and international level for the 2010-2011 school year.
“As a new group on campus, we came in with an idea of how this program was going to be, but we were uncertain on the execution aspect of the program,” Wolfe said. “All we had was our constitution that stated we would have biweekly meetings and one service project a month.”
The overall goals of the Interfaith Forum have been to increase religious literacy on campus, provide an open and safe environment to discuss faith-related topics, engage the religious diversity that already exists on campus and to utilize the shared call that all have to serve their fellow man, said Wolfe. All of these goals reinforce the purpose of Interfaith Youth Core’s Better Together Campaign.
UIndy Interfaith Forum’s president Mark Wolfe (center) took part in small group discussions at the Speak In event that intended to help promote the understanding of different faith bases and to build friendships. Photo by Kayla Prosser.
According to Wolfe, the Interfaith Forum has accomplished these goals through several service projects, such as the Gleaners Food Bank Project, which resulted in approximately 700 bags of food for the food bank.
Another contributing factor to the accomplishment of the forum’s goals was the “What If?” Speak In event that was co-hosted by the Campus Program Board on Nov. 16.
“Our primary goal was to rethink ways to do service by working together across faith lines,” Wolfe said.
Members of the Indianapolis Chapter of the Interfaith Hospitality Network, Mike Claphan, Mitch Katz, Shannon Glenn and JoAnn Morris were among the guest speakers at the event. As a panel, they answered a variety of questions about the importance of service and cooperation between faiths.
“When asked why one should serve with other faiths, Katz responded ‘why not’ and that one simple answer impacted me the most because it made me realize how natural it can be to just help others without religious boundaries, ” sophomore Mike McGrath said.
The Speak In Event featured small group discussions intended to help promote the goal of increased understanding of different faith bases, to build friendships with people of different backgrounds and also to realize the call of each faith to service in hopes of creating interfaith cooperation, according to Wolfe.
Before the discussion, 25 no-sew blankets were created and subsequently donated to the Interfaith Hospitality Network, which will distribute them to the homeless.
“It not only served as the first big event as a group on campus but also benefited the students as well as other members of the community [who] became aware of different faiths’ views on service. No matter if you’re Christian, Buddhist, secular or humanist, we are all called to serve in one way or another,” McGrath said.
The service projects that the Interfaith Forum has taken part in so far also include the Perpetual Pitch-In, an event that provided food for the community. Forum members also volunteered at the Interfaith Hospitality Network’s block party for homeless families.
“Interfaith awareness is important because there is a lot of ill feeling and hatred among several religions,” McGrath said. “Working together will help not only inspire respect between religions but also give a call to action to come together.”
