Interfaith Partnership Membership Drive 2017

Dear Interfaith Partnership Friends,

Greetings to you early in 2017. As a region, a nation and a global community, we find ourselves in uncharted territory.

Now, perhaps more than any other time in our memory, we need and cherish your support. The work and networks of Interfaith Partnership are essential to building and extending our reach to help make greater St. Louis a thriving, safe place for all.

Our 2017 Interfaith Partnership Membership Campaign theme is Building Bridges. St. Louis is bound together by bridges. Bridges bring together commerce, communication, cultures. Bridges span divides, overcome barriers. At our core, Interfaith Partnership builds bridges. In a time of fear and walls, we reach out through expanded dialogue groups, new initiatives with university students, through programs like Sprouts for Peace. In response to hate and exclusion, we bring teams of interfaith leaders into congregations, schools and corporations, to speak and listen, to enhance trust and understanding. We engage interfaith partners to promote public Cabinet statements for compassion and justice, to address the woeful wrongs of racial discrimination through the Faith & For the Sake of All efforts. We collaborate with arts organizations to celebrate our oneness, our creativity, our essential humanity. We repair bridges. We create new ones. It’s what we do.

There’s a song for this Building Bridges Membership Campaign. Written in the 1980s, Bill Staines’ catchy tune and hopeful lyrics is a song to sing during these difficult times. With his permission, we share a link to “Bridges”. (https://youtu.be/2MYTmcfQkK0). The first verse is as follows:

There are bridges, bridges in the sky, they are shining in the sun.
They are stone and steel and wood and wire, they can change two things to one.
They are languages and letters, they are poetry and awe,
They are love and understanding and they’re better than a wall.

The song makes a clear call to positive action: “Let us span another canyon, let us right another wrong.” The 2017 Membership Campaign continues until May 22, the 32nd Anniversary of IP’s incorporation. As you plan your Annual Membership contribution, you are building or renewing a bridge that brings people together. Your membership gift supports our Facebook presence and Festival of Nations’ tent, our key leadership with the 9/11 Memorial in Music and annual Thanksgiving service, tours of worship places, food and festival events, religious diversity awareness roundtables, Habitat for Humanity interfaith build days, partnerships with universities, hospitals, corporations and faith groups.

“Let’s be off and on our way!” Please be generous. Membership signup is available here.

Appreciatively,

Leonard Frankel Rev. Dr. David Mehl
Board President 2017 Co-Executive Director