Greater Houston’s religious diversity is one of our city’s strengths, and IRCP is glad to host educational and interactive group tours of houses of worship to showcase this religious diversity.   In April and May, Kim Mabry, Program Manager, Interfaith Engagement, led group tours for an employee group of Arnold Ventures that examined the architectural elements of a Hindu and Buddhist temple and the Rothko Chapel and The Emery Weiner School’s senior class that included six houses of worship over two days.
 
In June, she organized a special “inaugural” tour of local sites deeply rooted in African American heritage in our community.  This tour is among several specially focused tours to be formally launched later this summer to provide school, college, community, corporate, and religious groups with a fun, educational and interactive look at greater Houston’s diverse faith communities.

Spring is always a festive time across faith traditions, and since interfaith engagement is at the heart of what IRCP does, we gladly attended several religious and cultural observances in April and May. At an Ahmadiyya Moslem Interfaith Iftar at Bait us Samee, we spoke about our mutual desire to work together to foster interfaith understanding.   We met new friends and learned about Ramadan at an Iftar at the Muslim American Society in Katy.  We joined the Bahai Spiritual Assembly of Sugar Land to observe one of their special holy days, Ridvan, and attended a special Hindu art exhibit “Darshana-A Glimpse in the Hindu Civilization.” We loved that our IMpulse young professionals joined us at some of these wonderful events.

On June 9, IMpowered Voices: A Unity Concert 2022, which streamed on IM’s Facebook page, showcased talented performers with the Houston Grand Opera, The Ensemble Theatre, Houston Symphony, and Rev. Vascola Stoney and Teo Bijarro.  Sponsored by IMpower, IM’s women’s initiative, the “friendraiser” raised $25,000 to support Interfaith Ministries.  We are grateful to our lead sponsors Debbie and Floyd Kearns, Bridgeway Capital Management, and the Esther Friedman Family Foundation/Ann and J. Kent Friedman, and all our sponsors and friends for supporting this community event and our work.   More than 70 sponsors, artists, IM board members, and IMpower leaders watched the Concert on the big screen that night at a special dinner and tribute to IM Board Chair (2020-2021) Jay Harberg in IMGH’s Great Hall.

IRCP is motivated by Martin Luther King, Jr’s quote:  Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”  Fighting hatred matters, and on this, we pledge not to be silent.” 
 
This statement, along with our pledge to do what we can through dialogue, service, and collaboration to foster positive interfaith and intergroup relations and reject hatred, were part of a letter we shared with African American leaders in Buffalo, New York after the horrific attack on the Black community there.  The letter was signed by over 200 interfaith and community leaders.
 
In addition, we were honored to join elected officials and other interfaith and community leaders at a special vigil hosted by Bishop James Dixon, Community of Faith Church, on May 19 to pay tribute to the fallen and denounce hatred. 

Faith leaders continue to get accurate and important COVID updates from top medical experts as part of IRCP’s COVID briefings.  The briefings, now held monthly, also feature presentations on cutting edge topics of importance to clergy and other community leaders. In addition to Dr. David Callender, CEO, Memorial Hermann, who shared current COVID trends and insights, our first monthly call on May 19 featured an update on Afghan refugee resettlement with IMGH Chief Programs Officer Ali Al Sudani.  In June, in addition to Dr. Callender’s COVID update, we discussed Community Health Workers in faith communities with Professor Dan Price of the College of Medicine & Honors College at the University of Houston and Dr. Sarah Simmons, Director of Health Outcomes for Bread of Life, Inc.