Greetings!
Democrats and Republicans, Muslims and Jews, 99% and 1%. For Faith House, this year has been a time of not only hard work, but also anguish over the increasing polarizations that are gripping our city, country, and the world. If they don't weaken or destroy 'the other,' people are beginning to fear, there will be no future for them. In this 'us-or-them' world, our very identities seem under threat. In the Faith House community, we believe that to know who I am, I must also know who you are. The time of isolated faith is over. For Faith House, this years marks a turning point that is best expressed by the expansion of our mission statement. After pouring over the testimonies of people whose life have been touched by our work, we finally found an accurate description of what we have been about! "Experience your neighbor's faith, deepen your own."
This is radical. Very radical. In today's world, religious people have to remap their reality to include - in tension and in gratitude - 'the other.' While our ancestors may have fought for independence, our great struggle is for interdependence. 'The other' is not over there, but all around us. While we have been conceiving of the world in vertical terms (whose party is better, whose institution is larger, whose nation is stronger, whose god is bigger), the world is horizontal. These are times like no other. Holy insecurity. Holy weakness. Can we learn to be a part of the whole? And that's what Faith House is about. For the majority of people in the world, religion is their strongest identity marker. If we make progress in learning to hold to our religious identity for the common good, than the coming (r)evolution will make the world better. In this past year, we learned deeply together with you. - Faith House hosted 14 Living Rooms, 11 Kitchen Table gatherings, and our 3rd Interfaith Seder for 250 people.
- We planned our 1st 6-stop Tour Bus, a weekend-long retreat, the interfaith programs at the 1st Wild Goose Festival, and launched Women's Spirituality Circles.
- We obtained our 501(c)(3) status from the IRS, hired Frank Fredericks, started a YouTube Channel, grew to 850 twitter followers, and launched a new website.
- Samir gave the keynote address at Harvard on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and his book, It's Really All About God, came out in paperback and kindle.
- Next year, we are committed to reaching out in new and innovative ways to our online community, so that people beyond Manhattan can experience their neighbor's faith and deepen their own.
When you are bombarded with news about the polarization of the world and when you fear the future pressing down on you, find solace in the fact that there are many forces out there working and living for a better world. Faith House is such a force, a striving organization, an extension of your hope calling back to you: Do something, swim upstream, move sideways, 'horizontalize,' dig deeper, kiss 'the other.' Get radical with your faith. To deepen it, experience your neighbor's faith. And help us radicalize others with your generous end-of-the-year contribution today. We can only achieve this with your assistance. 
Click above to give online with a credit card or make a repeat donation (weekly or monthly) or send a check to "Faith House Manhattan" P.O. Box 552, New York, NY 10028 With much gratitude for making our mission of sustaining your hope and instigating the hope of others possible, Samir Selmanovic Founder & President of the Board Bowie Snodgrass Executive Director |
