Interfaith

Interfaith dialogue is one of the foundational programs within the Center. Although religious communities had interacted in different ways in previous centuries, it was the twentieth century that ushered in a richer, authentic, and more mutually respectful phase in dialogue Two of the most significant events in that century were the publication of Nostra aetate, a “Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions” that was issued by the Second Vatican Council of the Catholic Church in 1965, and the meeting of the Parliament of the World's Religions in 1993, which marked the centenary of the first Parliament (1893) and launched some of the world’s largest and most inclusive interfaith gatherings.

Nostra aetate  is not only a watershed document in the history of the Catholic Church’s relations to other religions; it also has been a catalyst in the development of interfaith dialogue in other Christian churches. The Parliament cultivates harmony among the world’s religions, bringing together thousands of individuals every few years to promote understanding and engagement with the world. In the course of decades following upon these seminal events, interfaith dialogue has evolved and blossomed.

Building on that tradition, the Brueggeman Center engages in traditional forms of interfaith dialogue, (see the list of programs at the end of the flip book in the Mission section) but also engage the religions with a range of academic disciplines, non-profit organizations, the business sector, and government in searching for and implementing solutions to the critical issues we face as a community and as a world. We believe that the faith communities, working together with the other sectors and providing moral guidance to them, can become a powerful force for good. They can, and must, become foundational to building the social capital that can transform our communities. 

Some of our interfaith partners:

• InterfaithCincy - Building community capacity through interfaith collaboration. 
• A Blessing to One Another - A major exhibit that now is an organization which creates opportunities for interfaith dialogue, engagement, and collaboration. 
• The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion – One of the programs on which we partner is the Rabbinical Fellows Program, funded by the Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati. Rabbinical Fellows can work in the Brueggeman Center on interfaith programs.
• The Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati- Promotes cooperation, religious understanding and community harmony through outreach, education on Islam, and collective work countering ignorance, prejudice and bigotry.
• EquaSion - A civic organization that works to develop educational and community service programming to foster greater understanding, respect, compassion, inclusion, and engagement for all people and faith communities in Greater Cincinnati and beyond.
  • One of its premier programs is The Cincinnati Festival of Faiths, which celebrates Cincinnati's interfaith diversity and acts as a vehicle for interfaith community engagement through "Compassion through Action."

 Some of our previous or ongoing activities/resources:

• Cincy Multi-Faith Calendar - A joint project of InterfaithCincy.org and the Festival of Faiths, this is the first interactive, interfaith calendar that has been produced. It includes not only the holidays of different religious communities, but also provides additional information about the faith traditions form which the holidays and rituals come. 
• The Cincinnati Festival of Faiths (see above)
• The Changing Role of Women in our Faith Communities- A series of conferences addressing the issues of women and their roles within many diverse faith communities.
• Search for the Spiritual in Art - A collaborative project with The Cincinnati Art Museum, The Taft Museum, The Skirball Museum, and the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati that explored various spiritual dimensions of art.