The percentage of American congregations involved in interfaith worship events has doubled in the last decade and the percentage involved in interfaith community service activities has nearly tripled. Only a little over half of American congregations ever share worship with other faiths and most of these do so only with other denominations in their broad tradition; Christian, Jewish or Muslim.

Congregations are more likely to participate in community service activities with other religions than they are worship events or educational or fellowship activities. These events and programs are rare in that nearly three out of four congregations did not participate in any kind of interfaith activity in the previous 12 months.

Congregations located in big cities and older suburbs are more likely to report involvement in interfaith activities of all kinds. Congregations on the east coast are more likely to be report involvement than are those located in other parts of the country. Oldline Protestant congregations are more likely to indicate they have been involved in multifaith events than are Evangelical congregations.

The most key indicators correlated with congregations participating in inter-religious activities include an openness to diversity, above-average community engagement and an attitude that welcomes change and innovation in general. The more community service programs that a congregation sponsors, the more likely it is to be involved in interfaith activities in general.

The personal involvement of clergy in the community is a strong indictor of the probability that a congregation is involved in interfaith events. Where clergy leaders give "quite a bit" or "a great deal" of emphasis on representing their congregation in the community the congregation is twice as likely to be involved in inter-religious programs and activities.

A copy of the report entitled American Congregations Reach Out to Other Faith Traditions is available for download at the FACT website.