Each year the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council gives two awards to acknowledge an individual and an organization in the greater Kansas City area demonstrating the values we hold so dearly – building the most welcoming community for all. These awards are:
The Steve Jeffers Leadership 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. This is an INDIVIDUAL award.
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.
Bill Tammeus: Steve Jeffers Leadership Service Award
Bill Tammeus is the former Faith section columnist for The Kansas City Star. He came to The Star in 1970 as a reporter, spent nearly 27 years on the paper’s editorial page, mostly writing the daily “Starbeams” column, and then moved his column in March 2004 to the weekly Faith section. He took formal retirement in mid-2006 but continued as Faith section columnist on a freelance basis until mid-November 2008.
In addition to this daily blog, Bill writes columns for The Presbyterian Outlook and, from March 2010 until September 2018, wrote columns for the online edition of the National Catholic Reporter. He also writes a monthly column for Flatland, KCPT-TV’s digital magazine.
A 1967 graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Bill was a member of The Star staff that won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. His many other awards include several from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and the American Academy of Religion, in addition to receiving the 2005 Wilbur Award given each year to the best religion column in the country.
He received the David Steele Distinguished Writer Award from the Presbyterian Writers Guild in 2003 and is the author of A Gift of Meaning, published by the University of Missouri Press in 2001, and co-author of They Were Just People: Stories of Rescue in Poland During the Holocaust, published in September 2009 by the University of Missouri Press. He’s also the author of Visitation: Celebrating a Century of Faith, published by a division of Kansas City Star books. It’s available from Visitation Catholic Parish of Kansas City. In 2014 he published Woodstock: A Story of Middle Americans, and in 2015 he co-authored, with the Rev. Dr. Paul T. Rock, Jesus, Pope Francis and a Protestant Walk into a Bar: Lessons for the Christian Church. His latest book is The Value of Doubt: Why Unanswered Questions, Not Unquestioned Answers, Build Faith, published in 2016.
Bill is past president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. He’s an elder at Second Presbyterian Church in Kansas City. Bill is currently on the board of the Kansas City Interfaith Youth Alliance, giving back to the community and our youth. Plus, if he’s needed in matters of building bridges related to faith, culture, ethnicity, he will be there if he can. He’s married to Marcia Tammeus. Between them they have six children and eight grandchildren.
Crescent Peace Society: Table of Faiths Award
The Crescent Peace Society is a not for profit organization established in 1996. The Society was formed by a small group of committed Muslims from the Greater Kansas City area after the Oklahoma City bombing. This painful event in Oklahoma affected not only the victims and their families, but also our entire nation. For the Muslim community, it affected our children who were afraid to attend their schools while much misinformation was spread about who committed this heinous crime.
It was after that traumatic event when that we felt that there was an absolute need for the Muslims living in America to enhance the understanding within the communities we live in about who we are and what we stand for. We are not the negative images portrayed in the media.
Since 1996, the Crescent Peace Society has worked within the Greater Kansas City community through a series of organized, educational and cultural interactions with other faiths and the media. We have been invited to speak at many churches, synagogues, community events and radio talk shows.
Our annual Ramadan Eid Dinners have become a permanent fixture in the Greater Kansas City area. At these events we gather with Muslims and non-Muslims to celebratE Eid-ul-Fitr—a day that marks the end of the 30-day fasting period in the holy month of Ramadan. We have organized and encouraged service projects especially for our young members in the Muslim community. We want to show our children and the citizens of Greater Kansas City, that we are civic-minded, law abiding, socially conscience American Muslims.
We have had many successes thanks to many prominent Muslims and non-Muslims for their efforts in sharing our Mission. To each one of them, we thank you. As events around the world affect our lives in America, there is much more work to be done. With Allah’s (God’s) help, the Crescent Peace Society will continue our mission. Inshallah (God willing). The Board and the Executive Committee of Crescent Peace Society invite you to join the Society’s cause for propagating a better understanding and awareness of different Muslim cultures and for peace and harmony all over the world. Membership is open to all US residents or citizens of any religious affiliation or culture.