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Cass Community Services
Building a Ladder



During the Great Depression, the Cass Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church started a food line and emptied its endowment fund providing assistance to the many unemployed. From that first outreach to the community's needy, its efforts have grown steadily, adding assistance to the developmentally challenged and homebound seniors in the 1950s and to the homeless in the 1980s, with the creation of a homeless drop-in shelter and a network of 40 partner churches to form a rotating interfaith shelter.

Under the leadership of Reverend Faith Fowler, Cass Community Services (CCS) has continued expanding, seeking solutions for the most intractable disadvantages to give those living in poverty a ladder of services and support to help them climb out.

Read about how 50,000 abandoned tires are helping the homeless out of poverty

Meet New IFLC Board Member 
David Kurzmann



As the Assistant Regional Director in the Chicago office of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), David Kurzmann, among his many outreach projects, led a group of non-Jewish college students on a mission to Israel. The program had no agenda other than providing a first-hand opportunity for its participants to get to know a country that may have been defined for them by news reports and hearsay. When they arrived, Abe Foxman, ADL's National Director, said to them "If you walk away with one thing from this trip, it's that it's complicated."

Kurzmann, who became the Executive Director the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) last year, has made a career of delving into the complicated, working to untangle and illuminate complex issues of identity, and using that process to build bridges of understanding and trust.

 Read about David Kurzmann

Update on the RDJ Quilt Project!




The quilts created by crafters and students as part of a joint project of the IFLC, Song and Spirit, and Project Linus have found their new homes! Locally the quilts were distributed to Beaumont Royal Oak, Providence and Children's Hospital of Michigan.
 
In Orlando, a volunteer quilt organization is mobilizing quilters across the country for victims of the Orlando Pulse tragedy. They reached out for themed comfort quilts to be given to the Orlando victims, families, children, first responders, and all affected by the devastation in their community. So, some of our RDJ quilts that fit perfectly with their theme have already landed in Orlando with the quilt volunteers for distribution and support of their volunteer efforts.

 Read about the quilt project


IFLC Needs Your Support


The IFLC is quickly, and through intense effort, becoming one of our community's key creators of educational programs designed to help us all come to the mutual respect and understanding that helps us undertake the crucial work of building our community together. The work of creating a network of congregations, faith-based organizations, and interfaith groups goes on daily through our outreach and conciliation efforts. 

The goal is nothing less than a faith community that acts in concert to remedy the many challenges facing all of its members.

Our annual awards dinner is both a chance to recognize some of our community's most effective activists and to raise money to continue our growing efforts. We hope you will both attend and support these efforts through an ad in our commemorative program book.


Click for information on supporting the IFLC with an ad.


IFLC Annual Awards Dinner 
October 5th, 2016 at Burton Manor

2016 Honorees

Dan Hart Krichbaum Visionary Civic Leader Award
Nancy M. Schlichting, CEO: Henry Ford Health System


Community Service Award
Bruce Millan, Founder and Artistic Director: Detroit Repertory Theater


Interfaith Leadership Award
WISDOM (Women's Interfaith Solutions for Dialogue and Outreach in MetroDetroit)




Exploring Our Religious Landscapes
Registration Open for Fall!



Every day we read the newspapers and see the unrelenting pain and suffering caused by failures of understanding, failures of openness, failures of communication. For those of us who involved in interfaith work, we know that a little bit of religious understanding can go a very long way. And we're excited about the many opportunities we can create in our community to create it. 

Click to read more.

Click here to register.


Zaman International
Seeks Sewing and Literacy Volunteers




Zaman International's new semester will begin September 6, the day after Labor Day.  Tutors will be providing one-on-one or small group instruction to the women they serve. No previous education or tutoring experience necessary since the tutors will receive a tutor training scheduled for either August 13 or 20, that date is not yet confirmed. The program runs Monday through Thursday from 10:00-2:00, according to the Dearborn Public Schools calendar. We ask our tutors to commit to two hours a week for an entire semester.  

Click here to volunteer

Question of the Week


To learn the answers to previous week's questions from across the faith traditions, please click here for our question archive!






Q: What events do Jews mourn with the 
fast of the 17th of Tammuz? 

A: Click here
 

The IFLC would like to help foster our understanding of one another by using our newsletter as a forum for you to ask these questions. We want to share your questions anonymously within the framework of our newsletter where religious leaders from these diverse faith communities will provide answers to them. We welcome the opportunity to learn together!

You can ask your questions in response to this newsletter or click here to email us!

IFLC Your Link to Religious Literacy
Interfaith News and Events
Please share with us!

Are there topics that you would like to learn more about within our newsletter? Questions that you would like answered? As our dedicated weekly readers, we invite you to share with us!. 
 
 Please click here to share your thoughts and ideas!
Don't Miss These Upcoming InterFaith Events
Please visit our InterFaith Events Calendar for more information on the events listed below or contact us by clicking here.
July 2016 Events
2nd Annual Faith-Based Initiatives Conference
DoubleTree Hotel Dearborn I Detroit
5801 Southfield Rd, Detroit
Thursday, July 21, 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM 

The Ralph Bunche 2016 Summer Institute
Wayne State University's Center for Peace and Conflict Studies
July 25 - 29

Community and Faith-Based Organization Vaccine Champions Workshop
The Cathedral of St. Paul
4800 Woodward, Detroit
Wednesday July 27, 10 am to Noon
Click here for more info
August 2016 Events
Troy-area Interfaith Group picnic
City of Troy Boulan Park pavillion-picnic area
3671 Crooks Rd. 
Monday, August 1, 6:30-8:30 pm 

Adult Mental Health First Aid Training Workshop
Trinity St. Mark's
9315 W. Fort Street, Detroit
Saturday, August 6, 8:30 am- 4:30 pm

Interfaith Suburban-Urban Annual Unity Picnic
Detroit Interfaith Outreach Network
Belle Isle, Detroit (Central Ave)
Sunday, August 7, noon - 5 pm
Click for more info

Exploring Our Religious Landscapes
Sri Venkateswara Hindu Temple
26233 Taft Road, Novi
Tuesday, August 30, 6 - 9 pm
Click here for more info
September 2016 Events
Troy-area Interfaith Group 
"Belief", a screening of Oprah Winfrey's television series
Northminster Presbyterian Church
3633 West Big Beaver Road, Troy.
Monday, September 12th, 7:00-8:30 pm

Walking in Oak Creek
Macomb Family Resource Center
196 N. Rose Street, Mount Clemens
Friday, September 16, 9:30 - 11:30 am
Click here for more info

Uncovering Our Sacred Texts Panel
Interfaith Leadership Council
Mata Tripta Ji Gurdwara Sahib
40600 Schoolcraft Road, Plymouth
Sunday, September 18th- 3:30 - 6:00 p.m.
Click here for more info

Interfaith Amigos - 
The Power of Interfaith Dialogue
Thursday, Sept. 22
Workshop 1: Creating Trust in an Interfaith Environment
11 a.m. - 12 p.m. * Alpena Community College, Granum Theatre
Workshop 2: The Value of a Core Teaching
2 p.m. - 3 p.m. * Alpena Community College, Granum Theatre
Challenges to Interfaith Cooperation
7 p.m. * Alpena High School, Stanley Beck Auditorium

Exploring Our Religious Landscapes
The Jain Temple of Farmington Hills
29278 12 Mile Road, Farmington Hills
Tuesday, September 27, 6 - 9 pm  
Click here for more info
October 2016 Events

InterFaith Leadership Council 
4th Annual Awards Dinner
Wednesday, October 5th, 5:30pm
Burton Manor, 27777 Schoolcraft Road, Livonia
November 2016 Events

Exploring Our Religious Landscapes
The First Church of Christ- Scientist
191 North Chester Street, Birmingham
Tuesday, November 1, 6 - 9 pm
 
Exploring Our Religious Landscapes
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
37425 Woodward Ave, Bloomfield Hills
Tuesday, November 29, 6 - 9 pm 

IFLC is a community resource for interfaith education, news and events. To suggest an event for our next calendar, send us an email

Like us on Facebook or visit the IFLC website and Google calendar for more details.