At the Parliament of World Religions in Toronto last November, I attended a session entitled “GenInterfaith: Claiming Complex Religious Labels”.  Author and speaker, Susan Katz Miller, began with a premise that speaks to us at the Spiritual Guidance Training Institute.  From her description she wrote, “Few of us have singular religious identities. Most of us have extended interfaith families, are multiple religious practitioners, live in post-colonial environments with religious layering, and learn from and draw on the many religions that surround us.” We interact in face to face and online encounters with diverse representations at the intersections within our community.
 
In her presentation, Susan Katz Miller highlighted the fact that ¼ of our population in the US is growing up in interfaith families.  In addition, the fastest growing interfaith couples are Christian and Atheist.  We are in need of new practices, given the rise in intermarriage, multiple religious practices, and spiritual fluidity (a term by Dwayne Bidwell, author of When One Religion Isn’t Enough).  The following four practices were suggested:

1. Let us define ourselves.  We don’t want to check merely one religion.
2. Educate institutions and clergy.  Make sure we include the voices as insiders, rather than talk about them as outsiders.
3. Embrace religious literacy.  We can take opportunities to create links between people of faith and no faith.
4. Include us in the practices.  Make sure that multi-faith people are part of the discussion.

 
We would like to add one more and are also curious about what practices you would add.

1. Cultivate relationships with people of multi-faith and no faith.  What better way to live into our interconnected nature.

 
At the Spiritual Guidance Training Institute, we celebrate the multitude of religious identities as well as the identities of race, ethnicity, class, gender, ability, sexual/attractional orientation, age, socio-economic class, work, education, veteran status and more.  And, we trust that our practices align with our words.

On Monday, January 7, 2019, we celebrated the graduation of SGTI's first cohort of interfaith/interspiritual guides. This was a landmark moment for the Institute as well as for these students because they are some of the first in the U.S. (the world!) to have received formal training and certification in interfaith/interspiritual direction. We are so very proud of them. Congratulations, graduates!

Students for this cohort hailed from California, Texas, Illinois and Michigan. We initially gathered with them in August 2017 in Chicago, IL. for a one-week Residential Institute. We took trips to various holy houses in the greater Chicago area to expand our knowledge and experience of various traditions. On our first full day together (pictured above left), we visited Mishkan, and participated in a Shabbat service and potluck afterwards. 

"The gift you give another person is just your being."
Ram Dass