Dear Friends of the Interfaith Institute,
I am so pleased to be starting off our new year with you! We are excited to bring programming to you that continues to co-create a more caring world, build community, and foster collaboration. Our theme for this year and much of our programming is “Interfaith Leadership and Healing in Times of Crises.” We believe that this year presents challenges for us all and also promises the ability to work together to solve issues we face.
Augsburg, deeply rooted in the Lutheran faith to serve and practice hospitality, continues to offer the world a beautiful example of how to build connections across diversity. It is in fact, our differences that animate our collective strength. Coming together in fellowship to learn about each other’s worldviews and traditions allows us to dull sources of fear, open threads of conversation, and build a relational ethic of care.
We are also planning programs on timely issues involving recovery and faith communities and leaders. Our Institute staff is working closely with campus partners to offer programming to faculty, staff, and students in various sessions across campus in 2023.
Campus-wide highlights include:
- Interfaith Lunch and Learns geared toward students, faculty, and staff learning about each other’s traditions (January – April).
- Presenting to a retired group of Augsburg faculty and staff on Interfaith topics (January 11th).
- Participating in Augsburg’s annual Leadership Institute, a campus-wide training day for Augsburg student leaders, by teaching a workshop on Interfaith Advocacy Skills (January 21st).
- Focus Campus-wide Conversation topics of Interfaith (Feb 9th).
- Interfaith Sending is student-led worship showcasing Interfaith Scholars coursework and leadership skills and celebrating Augsburg’s religious diversity (April 25th).
- Collaboration with Augsburg’s Sabo Center, to host a dinner bringing neighborhood faith communities and Augsburg staff together for a meal. This will be a chance to deepen relationships with the broader Cedar-Riverside community, as well as an opportunity for neighbors of different faiths to learn more about each other.
- Interfaith in the Workplace. We trained over 300 employees in one of the largest construction companies in the country on how to navigate religious diversity. We look forward to continuing to offer these highly impactful sessions with other workplace sites across the country.
Interfaith Scholars Course Topics for the spring: Sacred Texts, Interfaith Leadership, Interfaith Peacebuilding Skills, Faith and Intersectional Identities, Interfaith Activism, Interfaith on College Campuses, Interfaith Leadership in Non-religious settings (ongoing).
Upcoming 2023 Events
I am delighted to share the Inaugural Interfaith Symposium – March 2, 11:00 am CT
We are so excited to announce our first Annual Interfaith Symposium. This signature event will be hosted each March. The goal is to bring the best minds and practitioners from around the globe to our campus. Najeeba Syed will be sharing a lecture on our 2023 theme, interfaith leadership, and healing in times of crisis.
We look forward to making this an annual tradition and hope you will be a part of it!
With warmest personal greetings in this new year,
Najeeba Syeed
El-Hibri Endowed Chair and Executive Director
Augsburg’s Interfaith Institute