Lincoln Interfaith Council

Nebraska Wesleyan University

William Draper Finlaw, Ph.D.

Brief History

The Lion Dance, an example of a cultural presentation by the Lincoln Interfaith Council. (Spring 2002)

The Lincoln Interfaith Council began in 1951 with the founding of the Lincoln Council of Churches which became the Lincoln Fellowship of Churches in 1971. In 1989, membership expanded to Lincoln's Bahai, Jewish, Unitarian, Unity and Lincoln Church Women United, opening the way for all faith communities and organizations that can live out the following purpose statement:

“The Lincoln Interfaith Council is an organization of religious communities which, each preserving its integrity and respecting the integrity of others, pledge themselves to cooperation and to the coordination of activities and services which foster faith, justice, reconciliation and understanding among the people of the Lincoln, Nebraska, area.”

Lincoln Interfaith Council’s Board of Directors has five operating divisions: education, food and hunger, general services, media, and urban ministries.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Those gathering and working with the Council represent a broad range of religious perspectives including Baha'i, Buddhists, Eckankar, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Unitarian-Universalist, Wiccan, Zoroastrian, and Christian, including Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant denominations.

DESCRIPTION OF THE CENTER

The Council is located in southwest Lincoln in a building as unassuming as the neighborhood in which it is located. This modest building shares space with the Asian Community and Cultural Center, African Multicultural Community Center, Faces of the Middle East, Migrant Child Education, Volunteer Partners, WorkUSA employment agency, Hai Train, M.D., and three apartments housing refugee families. The lower level provides classroom space for English as a Second Language courses, workshops and other community gatherings.

CENTER ACTIVIES

The building of the Lincoln Interfaith Council (Spring 2002)

The Education division sponsored the Interfaith Baccalaureate Service, and the Center for Spiritual Growth. Today it sponsors Harvest of Hope: A Migrant Child Education Project, as well as Connecting Neighborhood Partnerships, collaborative youth programming that includes a two-month summer school in collaboration with Elliott Elementary School Community Learning Center, African Multicultural Community Center, Asian Community and Cultural Center, Faces of the Middle East, and the Hispanic Community Center. The Council also assists Lincoln Public Schools in providing resources to assist in their State mandated "full infusion" of multicultural education throughout the entire school system.

The Media division produces a Faith Report on two radio stations as well as Lincoln’s Faith and Culture half-hour Cable television program seen twice weekly. In the fall, it publishes a Directory of Clergy, Congregations and Religious Resources as well as a Multi-Faith Planning Calendar covering a wide range of traditions. It has produced many videos including “Making a Difference”, which tells the Councils own story, and “Let Us Pray”, which depicts a variety of prayer traditions. The council also hosts an Annual Media Luncheon with the publisher, editors, and reporters of the local paper.

The Food and Hunger Division sponsors the Emergency Food Pantries System and Southeast Asian Rice Voucher Program, as well as giving leadership to the Lancaster County Food and Hunger Coalition. It also publishes and Annual Food & Hunger Statistical Data Report and Analysis for the city and county.

The Urban Ministries Division created and "spun-off" independent organizations: Asian Community and Cultural Center; Challenge Playground (a fully accessible playground for children with disabilities); Communities of Hope which assists congregations in dealing with alcohol and substance abuse issues; Communities Helping Immigrants and Refugees Progress, Day Watch Center for the Homeless; Interfaith Housing Coalition (saving two center-city apartments from destruction and turning them into low-income housing). It continues to sponsor many programs serving newcomer asylees, refugees, immigrants and migrants, African Multicultural Community center, Citizens Against Racism and Discrimination, Faces of the Middle East, Families First and Foremost (emotionally disturbed children involved with, or at-risk of becoming involved with the juvenile justice system).

The General Services Division sponsors a Freedom Breakfast honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Celebration, Holocaust Memorial Observance, Torch of Understanding Awards, Mayor’s Interfaith Breakfast, Stand for Children, Festival of Faith and Culture, New Clergy Orientation, Mental Illness Awareness Week, Interfaith Children’s Sabbath, Pastoral Care Week, UNICEF, and Interfaith Leadership Award Banquet.

COOPERATIVE INTERACTION/RELATIONSHIPS

Playground in Antelope park which is fully acccesible to children with disabilities.

Lincoln Interfaith Council by design works on a collaborative cross-cultural and multi-religious basis, seeking to empower and to educate. The Council's Boy Scout Troop #911 is comprised of Argentinean, Afghani, Asian Indian, Cambodian, Ethiopian, Iraqi, Korean, Native American, Sudanese, Thai and Vietnamese youth. Its New Clergy Orientation brings together religious leaders, public officials, and health and human services leaders each Fall. Religious and ethnic minority leaders are participants with the publisher, editorial and reporting staff of the local newspaper in the Council's Annual Media Luncheon, analyzing and shaping format and content of the Religion and Values page and other newspaper coverage. Connecting Neighborhood Partnerships brings together youth of all cultures in a variety of ongoing programs that include soccer teams, Tae Kwon Do classes, Lion Dance Troupe, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.

OBSTACLES/PROBLEMS

Lincoln Interfaith Council encounters the perhaps predictable problems that would come when different communities, with competing theologies, doctrines, and social political agendas attempt to work together. Some churches get nervous and withdraw because non-Trinitarians are members of the council. The Lincoln Interfaith Council is sometimes viewed with suspicion that it is "too Christian" or "not Christian enough." An outsider on the left or right might wonder if controversial issues are not dealt with forthrightly enough. In the Lincoln community, Dr. Leach is approached by a Sudanese Christian who has been mistaken for a Muslim and who, shortly after September 11th, had a neighbor's "For Sale" sign planted on his lawn.

But doctrinal and political disputes can dodge pressing ministry needs. As Dr. Leach suggests, Lincoln Interfaith Council is not “top-down doctrinally”, because of a priority of orthopraxy over orthodoxy, “if the only thing you can do is feed the hungry, come and join us.” Current President of Lincoln Interfaith Council, Mrs. Amrita Mahapatra (Sikh) stated in an acceptance speech that she came to Lincoln Interfaith Council with the intention of giving, only to be gratefully surprised that she received more than she has given. What Lincoln Interfaith Council offers is a chance to immerse in multicultural realities within a context that is local. As Dr. Norman Leach suggests, the metaphor of the banquet is appropriate, “if you don’t like the food on one end of the table, go to another.”

Speaking of food, at a recent LIC banquet in his honor, Rev. Dr. Joel Gajardo, former Executive Director of the Hispanic Center cited a translation of Jeremiah 29:4-7 which said, “In the well being of the city you live in is your well being.” This seems an appropriate description of Lincoln Interfaith Council which seeks to bring a world down to a local level and thus savors the banquet in our midst.

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