Better Together | Your Morning BasketGWINNETT INTERFAITH ALLIANCE


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MISSION STATEMENT

Our mission is to promote understanding and respect among the different faiths of Gwinnett County by interaction, communication and education. 

We will strive to create and enrich the community by working together to promote inclusion and acceptance.  

We will focus on our commonalities while embracing our differences.

 


 For more information email Steve Darnowsky at 
gwinnettinterfaithalliance@gmail.com.

 

Our monthly meeting will take place on TBD

 Join Zoom Meeting
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Meeting ID: 812 3109 3048
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Mission Statement  

The Gwinnett Remembrance Project acknowledges, remembers, and educates the community about the county's violent and racist past.  The Project honors the memories of Gwinnet's victims of racial violence -- those whose names are known to us and those whose names are lost to history -- by working with the Equal Justice Initiative to erect a fitting memorial that inspires the community to come together, fosters conversations about historical and current injustices, and enables dialogue, trust, and healing.


Received from Joanne Stein:

Georgia Interfaith Power and Light (GIPL) has a number of programs that can support your faith community in becoming goodstewards of our environment. They have reached out to us and provided the following information.  Access full message here.

Sharing this information as many folks in the Alliance have kids in GCPS or live in Gwinnett. Please share this widely and ask your friends of all faiths to take action.

Recently, Gwinnett County Public Schools invited parents and staff to provide feedback on four proposed calendars for 2024-25 and 2025-26. Calendar options 2 and 4 include major holidays for religious observance: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Eid al-Fitr, Diwali, and Good Friday. This is a positive action for GCPS - it may be the first time that these religious holidays have been suggested as school holidays. People of all faiths should encourage the Board of Education to select calendars that include these religious holidays

Why does this matter?

Some people may not understand the significance of major religious holidays as days off, since students generally receive excused absences. However, taking a day as an excused absence means that students must make up all the work and may even need to make up tests or quizzes. If GCPS has a holiday, then students aren't being penalized for observing their religion - just like students celebrating Christmas don't need to make up work since the holiday occurs during winter break. 

Gwinnett County has a very diverse population. Often, it appears that GCPS uses that diversity as a marketing point (Look how many countries our students come from! or, Look how many languages our students speak!). Expanding school holidays to cover major religious holidays of multiple faiths would suggest that GCPS genuinely values student diversity and wants to help its students.

What can I do?
The four calendar options, as well highlights showing their similarities and differences, are available for review at https://www.gcpsk12.org/Page/37208.

  •  GCPS Parents: If you are the parent of a GCPS student, please complete the survey (sent to you on September 20th) no later than October 22nd. Please select calendar option 2 or 4.

  • All who live in Gwinnett County, including parents: please email the Board of Education at MySchoolBoard@gcpsk12.org. Explain why it is important to you as a parent or county resident that they choose a calendar (option 2 or 4) that includes religious holidays.

  •  GCPS students in grades 6-12 have the opportunity to share their calendar preferences. There is a link on their student portal page that says Proposed Calendar Feedback. It can be found under the Additional Resources section. Please encourage your students to provide this feedback by October 22nd.

Gwinnett Interfaith Alliance Prayer Circle - Topic "Kindness"
To Join Click The Zoom Link Below:

https:/luso2weh.zoom.us(Jl893z215638z
Or Join By Phone Using The Numbers Listed

For years, Gwinnett County has been known for its numerous and diverse houses of worship. Now it is becoming known for their growing connection, a connection strengthened by the Gwinnett Interfaith Alliance, (GIA), dedicated to promoting understanding and respect among Gwinnett County's different faiths through interaction, communication and education. 

At a recent Gwinnett County Commission meeting, a petition supporting removal of the Confederate memorial from the Gwinnett County Courthouse lawn was presented by a member of Medina Institute Mosque and a pastor from Grace Lutheran Church. The petition was one of GIA's activities and was signed by members of Gwinnett's Hindu, Jewish, Lutheran, Methodist, Muslim, Sikh, Unitarian-Universalist and non-denominational communities. 

In October of 2018, Temple Beth David in Snellville invited members of the community to attend its vigil and worship service after the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting.  Formation of the Gwinnett Interfaith Alliance was a direct result of that memorial.  Since then, GIA has come together to support its members after such events as the mosque shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the fatal shooting of a Sikh police officer in suburban Houston. 

The commitment that the Gwinnett Interfaith Alliance has to its members extends to the entire Gwinnett interfaith community, underlining the belief that any action or event that affects one religious unit of Gwinnett County, affects all religious units of Gwinnett County.  The GIA meets monthly on Zoom to discuss issues relevant to Gwinnett County's religious community. Information on the Alliance and on its meetings can be found at GwinnettInterfaithAlliance.org, and everyone is invited to join.


THE ROLE OF RELIGION IN PUBLIC SPACE

Abortion Panel


This event will take place on February 25 at 7:00 pm at the Baitul Ata Mosque located at 1800 Willowbrook Pkwy, Norcross.  You can access the planning document for this event here

The general theme is "How My Faith Guides Me On Abortion". During the event you will be asked several questions  by a moderator in round robin fashion about the teachings of your faith on abortion, what you take away from those teachings and how you apply them to your pastoral practice. The questions will be shared with you before the event.  


Association for Clinical Pastoral Education
Application & Instructions for Clinical Pastoral Education

 


LETTER TO THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS ABOUT ADOPTING INCLUSIVE PUBLIC PRAYER FOR MEETING INVOCATIONS

RECOMMENDED INVOCATION GUIDLINES


Equal Justice Initiative (EJI)

 

The Anti Defamation League Program "No Place for Hate" school program.
It contains a list of all schools that qualified for the 2018/2019 school year in the southeast including those in Gwinnett. 

Gwinnett Board of Commissioners Invocation Letter

Gwinnett Interfaith Alliance Flyer

Recommendations & Guidelines for Inclusive Public Prayers

 


As Hate Incidents Rise, States Require Teaching the Holocaust


 Anti-Defamation League

 

 

 

The New Anti-Catholicism

 

This Jewish Teen is Working to Combat Anti-Semitism — One Student at a Time

 

 

 

Peace V1 - Religion, Conflict and Peace

 

The danger of a single story | Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie