The Interfaith Leadership Forum aims to promote pluralism by convening leaders of various religious, ethnic, racial, cultural and gender backgrounds to exchange ideas and generate an action-oriented agenda. It provides a venue where a diverse group of community leaders, scholars, clergy and public officials can engage in in-depth discussions on shared values and explore ways to harness them for social action. ILF is open to all individuals who are interested in advancing their interfaith literacy and serving the community as interfaith mobilizers in their professional or individual capacities.
The ILF seeks to strengthen interfaith relationships, literacy, and leadership by:
- Equipping one another with various models of dialogue with distinct ends
- Experiencing deeper levels of interfaith encounter and dialogue
- Strengthening literacy about other’s faiths and about one’s own
- Overcoming prejudices and misconceptions about other faiths
- Eliciting social action through interfaith engagement
View recent videos of ILF events below.
February 2024: Harnessing Our Collective Strength Through Interreligious Literacy
This first 2024 event will take place on February 29, and features a keynote address by Dr. Shaun Casey, the director of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and professor of the practice in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
It will also feature an array of speakers on a variety of topics very relevant to ministers and others engaged in interreligious work and ministries in various areas:
- Chaplaincy: Sister Laura Lee Seubert, L.S.J., Chaplain, the MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C.
- Community-based Social Action: Rev. Dr. William H. Lamar IV, Pastor, Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C.
- Health Care: Speaker TBD
- Education: Dr. Kate Soules, Founder & Director of the Religion & Education Collaborative
- Law Enforcement: Lt. Livio Rodriguez, Director, Special Liaison Branch, Metropolitan Washington, D.C. Police
This in-person event will be held at Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Va. A reception will kick things off at 5:30 p.m. followed by the program from 6:15 – 9 p.m.
Information about registration and RSVP is available here!
February 2022: Building Interfaith Partnerships Beyond Racism and Religious Nationalism
This program explored the nature of global nationalism and its specific manifestation in the U.S. First, we heard from Dr. Mark Juergensmeyer, who is an expert who has been studying this trend for over thirty years. His keynote remarks were followed by a panel of diverse faith leaders who shared their views on building interfaith solidarity to resist the White Supremacist Christian ideology threatening our nation.
May 2021: Human Dignity and Solidarity: Interfaith Responses to “Fratelli Tutti”
This conversation brought together a diverse array of faith leaders and scholars in the Greater Washington, D.C.-area and beyond for an interactive exchange on some of the most pressing issues of our age. As the search for answers on how to emerge better into a post-pandemic society continues, a collective reflection on Pope Francis’ latest encyclical can renew hopes and illuminate the way forward.
October 2020: Inaugural Event – From Interfaith Encounter to Engagement
The inaugural event of the new Interfaith Leadership Forum explored how to deepen interfaith work in religious communities, professional life, and our culture.