THIS EVENT HAS ENDED. Thank you to those who attended!

April 21, 2015 at Sheraton Crown Center

Since 1989, we have had the opportunity to grow and create educational programming to celebrate religious and cultural diversity in the Kansas City area. In these ever changing times, understanding people of different faith traditions and other backgrounds is necessity to create and maintain harmony in our community. The Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council is committed to building the most welcoming community for all people.

Our theme this past year is an invitation to look within our own faith beliefs and spiritual practices to see how the emerging wisdom gives rise to a our individual and collective commitments to our families, our communities, our world and the future we are creating together for all life. On the following pages are a few thoughts and quotes from distinct perspectives about our theme, One Family ~ One World ~ One Future.

Awardees:

Table of Faiths Award – The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

This year, the Table of Faiths award is being presented to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Although internationally acknowledged as a premier art museum, the museum also makes strong contributions to the spiritual landscape of our community. The Nelson-Atkins in Kansas City is recognized nationally and internationally as one of America’s finest art museums. The Nelson-Atkins serves the community by providing access and insight into its renowned collection of more than 35,000 works of art and is best known for its Asian art, European and American paintings, photography, modern sculpture, and new American Indian and Egyptian galleries.

Housing a major art research library and the Ford Learning Center, the Museum is a key educational resource for the region. The institution-wide transformation of the Nelson-Atkins has included the 165,000-square-foot Bloch Building expansion and renovation of the original 1933 Nelson-Atkins Building.

The contributions made by the Nelson-Atkins to interfaith and intercultural education and understanding are exhibited through its emphasis on works of great cultural, as well as artistic, significance, in special exhibits like 2014’s Echoes: Islamic Art & Contemporary Artists, Roads to Arabia, and The Plains Indians: Artists of Earth and Sky as well as in its permanent collection. Accepting the award on behalf of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is Leesa Fanning, Curator of Contemporary Art, who is currently designing an upcoming exhibit dedicated to contemporary spiritual art.

The Table of Faiths award, which dates to the early days of the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council as a community organization, is given to an organization that exhibits interfaith values in the community.

Steve Jeffers Interfaith Service Award – Rev. Dr. Wallace Hartsfield, Sr.

The 2015 awardee is Rev. Dr. Wallace Hartsfield, Sr., former pastor of Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church, in Kansas City, Missouri, as well as pastorates throughout the United States. Rev Hartsfield served on the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council for several years, representing Protestant Christianity. He is nationally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of the civil rights struggle. After graduating from Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University), he attended Gammon Theological Seminary (now Interdenominational Theological Center). He also holds numerous honorary degrees from many colleges and universities and has often spoken at colleges, universities and seminaries locally, nationally, and internationally. Prior to his remarkable 40-year pastorate at Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church, he held pastorates in Kansas, Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia, leaving his influence throughout the country.

In 2006 he was selected as a member of an interdenominational group that met with Turkish officials to tour that country and broaden international faith and community relations. For over four decades, he has worked for human rights at the local and national levels of the Congress of National Black Churches, has served in various civic positions at the local and state level, and in numerous capacities, including the Executive Board of the Jazz District Redevelopment Corporation and as President of the Greater Kansas City Chapter of Operation PUSH, an organization dedicated to the promotion of religious and social development and human rights.

The Steve Jeffers Interfaith Service Award is named in honor of the late Director of Spirituality in Health of Shawnee Mission Medical Center, who was a major contributor to the interfaith community, as well as the health community.