Ira Sirkar has served as the Sufi Faith Director with the GKC Interfaith Council since 2011. He has been a student of Sufism since 1976 and is an ordained minister, a Cherag, in the Sufi Universal Worship, a concentration that brings the world’s religions together to promote understanding and spiritual awakening for humanity in a prayer service.
He is also a leader of the Dances of Universal Peace, which uses sacred phrases from the world’s faiths traditions, attunements with embodiments of the divine, music and simple dances in a moving mediation and tantric practice.
He has also served as the Kansas City program coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker-based peace and justice organization since 1986. In that capacity he has organized programs on conflict resolution, social and economic justice, opposition to war, promotion of peace and youth civic engagement and leadership.
He has a master’s degree in conflict resolution and bachelor’s degrees in art/environmental science and elementary education. He is an avid gardener and was the founding director of the KC Community Garden Project. He is happily married and lives and gardens with his wife, Leila, in south Kansas City.