Before I joined the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council, my first encounter with this group came at a Table of Faiths. This was back when all of the booths were in a large hallway outside of the banquet room where dinner would be served. I was in absolute awe when I saw table after table representing a vast array of pathways into the sacred. And all of these people lived and worked and dreamed right here in the Kansas City area!
My first encounter with the Interfaith Council came at a Table of Faiths. I rejoiced at what I found! – Rev. Michael Stephens, Council Director for Protestant Christianity
I rejoiced in the diversity and devotion. I flinched at the recognition that many of these same people had experienced exclusion or rejection in this city we love. The Protestant Christian tradition of my youth that had often claimed to be the only way to salvation or an experience of God, had moved into more open expressions of Protestantism which delight in the many religions of the world that all add to our experience of God and the universal sacred dream for a creation released from bondage to tribalism, hate, wealth, power and patriarchy.
In that row of booths, I felt both an awkwardness of unknowing and yet a deeper calling to know and be known so that we might walk this road together.
Join us to rejoice in diversity and devotion at the Table of Faiths Sept. 23, a hybrid event. Register or become a sponsor today.
[Rev. Michael L. Stephens, the pastor of Southwood United Church of Christ, Raytown, is a .]