As I prepare to turn over the reins as Executive Director to my worthy successor, Rev. Dr. David Lindsey, I would like to share five of my favorite memories. Each of them demonstrates the power and the world healing potential of the work of the IFC.

1) Just two weeks ago this month (June 14) a diverse group of faith leaders gathered to chant, read, or pray from their sacred scriptures on the theme of opposing racism in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church opposite Lafayette Square a block from the White House. This program, initiated by the IFC, did not shy from making the point that waving a closed Bible in front of a prominent church neither represents the diversity of faith in the United States, nor does it represent what our many faiths can bring to conversations about racial and social injustice in our country.

2) At one of our annual interfaith concerts that always manage to inspire hundreds with the diversity of our spiritual practices, our smallest Faith Community, the Zoroastrian Association of Metropolitan Washington, presented a multi-media program that included their traditional fire ceremony and the consecration of a new spiritual leader. With the ceremony taking place in the beautiful historic sanctuary of Washington Hebrew Congregation, we witnessed the coming together of two ancient faith traditions both of which date their origins to 3500 years ago, a truly unique and unforgettable historic occasion.

3) Another spectacular combination occurred during our annual Unity Walk which begins at Washington Hebrew Congregation and continues to the Islamic Center of Washington on Massachusetts Avenue. One year the Unity Walk coincided with the visit of Pope Francis to the United States. On the day of the walk Pope Francis was officiating at a public mass (in Spanish) in Philadelphia and that mass was broadcast by loud speakers and large screens from the step of the Islamic Center. Unity Walkers approaching the minarets and the courtyard of the Mosque were greeted with the beautiful music and powerful music and chant of a traditional mass broadcast from Philadelphia.

4) A further opportunity to gather in front of a mosque was not so beautiful when the IFC participated in bringing faith leaders to stand together in front of Masjid Muhammad, the Nation’s Mosque and the oldest mosque in the capital built by American Muslims. The occasion was an outpouring of solidarity with the members of that mosque which was one of 20 throughout the country that were warned by armed vigilantes intending to picket their very existence. The picketers never showed up, perhaps discouraged as they were by the Christian neighbors of the Masjid Mohammad posting signs saying we welcome our Muslim neighbors. This was also a time when the incoming administration was threatening to force all American Muslims to put their names on a registry. Rabbi Jack Moline of the Interfaith Alliance and I both said in our comments that if they want to register Muslims we want to be on the top of the list.

5) Finally on a more personal note, I must say that although I grew up in the early days of broadcast television listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (now known as the Tabernacle Choir of Temple Square) every Saturday morning, as a non-musician I never imagined that I would one day have the opportunity to “conduct” this magnificent choir of 360 singers and 80 musicians. Fortuitously Governor Larry Hogan’s health issues combined with the generosity of Elder Jack Gerard, an inspiring leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and staunch supporter of the IFC, gave me this opportunity. I imagine that a handful of Rabbis have had this experience of the years, but none of them could have been more moved than I was to be in the powerful presence of those devoted souls singing one of my favorite compositions, Wood Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land.”