Interfaith Council organizes Camp PEACE sessions, Thanksgiving service, domestic violence services, and faith and environment forum

Camp PEACE organizer brings new energy, vision

By expanding Camp PEACE, Sarah McConnel hopes to draw together stereotypical cliques in high schools—from cheerleaders to debaters—as well as to build interracial and intercultural bridges of understanding and respect.

Sarah McConnel leads Camp PEACE.

An AmeriCorps volunteer with the Interfaith Council of the Inland Northwest since early October, she is recruiting high school teams from Eastern Washington and North Idaho for retreats Nov. 10 to 12 and Dec. 1 to 3 at N-Sid-Sen near Harrison, Idaho. 

Peggy Federici of North Idaho College will facilitate the experiences that give students tools to take back to their schools to break down bigotry, harassment and bullying.

Sarah seeks to form an organization for students who have participated in Camp PEACE to plan reunion retreats and follow-up meetings to re-energize them to work throughout their high school years.  She is also networking with the Task Force on Race Relations and other agencies working on youth and diversity issues.

Sarah, a 2005 graduate in theatre arts from Gonzaga University, plans to continue work for a master’s degree in higher education and student affairs with the goal of working in residence life on a college campus.

As a residence advisor beginning her sophomore year, she realized that education extends beyond classrooms into the rest of a person’s life.  Through her work with the Council, she hopes to learn about diversity education.

The council has two other AmeriCorps positions:  Joscelyn Vila is coordinating the Circle of Caring.   A coordinator for the Faith and Environment Network will begin in January.

Attending a private high school near Portland, Ore., Sarah began to open her eyes to the world outside what she experienced as a child and a teen.  She grew up in the Catholic Church and found Jesuit Catholic education at Gonzaga poignant for her with its emphasis on mission and justice. 

Teachers there instilled in her a life-long love of diversity and intercultural competence.

“The earlier we learn about diversity, the more we absorb and the more passionate we become about it,” Sarah said.  “I hope we create such passion in high school students, so when they enter college, they will make a difference, too.  One person can make a difference.

“We all are different, part of different cultures, but come from the same web of roots,” she said.  “Even if we look different, we may have another a base of commonality,” Sarah said.

“For example, a black Jewish man and a white Christian man both share some common experiences as men.  We need people to look at the simple things that bring them together. 

“It can open a world of possibility, whether differences are visible or invisible.  I refuse to believe that two people cannot find some common ground, even if it takes a while,” she said.

Sarah hopes Camp PEACE might eventually influence a core of 10 percent of high schools to be passionate about diversity, so they can become creative, educated, diverse, tolerant, loving communities.

Events teach, preach and pray for end to domestic violence

An Oct. 21 candlelight vigil at Hillyard Baptist Church honored victims of domestic violence.

The Rev. John Dotson, pastor, recited statistics on domestic violence in the Spokane area and read names of dozens of local people killed by intimate partners.  He recognized hundreds of others who were not named.

“God’s plan for marriage is intimacy and trust. Domestic violence breaks our Creator’s and Savior’s heart, but there is hope for the abused and for those who abuse,” he said.

In addition to testimonies of victims and survivors, there was a candle-lighting ceremony.  Participants lit a candle and spoke the first name of a loved one who suffered violence at the hands of another.  Some wept openly.

When a middle-aged woman lit her candle, she turned and whispered the name of her elderly mother who was with her. The women embraced and shared an emotional moment.

The evening ended with release of balloons into the night air as a symbol of moving forward in life.

Three local organizations collaborated to sponsor the event: Abuse Recovery Ministry and Services, the Interfaith Council and Summit Quest.

That remembrance was one of 18 events of teaching, preaching and praying organized in October through the Circle of Caring program of the Interfaith Council on the theme, “Domestic Violence—A Community Issue.”

Other participating congregations were the Antioch Foursquare Church, the Baha’i Faith in Spokane Valley, Centenary United Methodist, Congregation Ner Tamid, Country Homes Christian, Covenant Christian, Emmanuel Lutheran, First Church of Religious Science, Living Word Center, Mission Community Presbyterian, Our Lady of Fatima Catholic, St. Aloysius Catholic, St. Ann Catholic, St. Mary’s Catholic, the Spokane Buddhist Temple, the Spokane Islamic Center, and Unity Church of Truth. 

Faith and Environment Network forms

A new Faith and Environment Network, formed to connect the faith and environment communities for education on the environment and lifestyle choices, is planning a benefit presentation by Peter Illian, director of Restoring Eden, a nonprofit group in La Center, Wash., that seeks to make environmental stewardship a core Christian value.  His talk, with a panel discussion by local network members, will be at 7 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 17, at Central Lutheran Church, 512 S. Bernard.

“The network seeks to mobilize volunteers to work with environmental groups on local conservation projects and campaigns,” said Jason Duba, an intern with Conservation Northwest, which is working in conjunction with the Interfaith Council of the Inland Northwest on this project.

The project has received an AmeriCorps grant for someone to work through the Interfaith Council and an advisory board.  The benefit will raise funds for the AmeriCorps matching requirement.

Impetus for this collaboration came from a 2003 dialogue series on religion and the environment. 

For information, call 535-1813.

By Mary Stamp, Fig Tree editor - Copyright © November 2005