SAINT ANDREW UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

October 12, 2021 | 0 COMMENTS | by admin

I am the pastor of St. Andrew United Church of Christ and I am writing to tell you that my congregation and I began a wonderful relationship with The Salaam Network a couple of years ago. We are most impressed with the way that they are serving our local community through engaging and educational programs. I believe they are finding many creative solutions to addressing the fear and misunderstandings that exist in our society between the different religions, especially the discrimination that is prevalent against the Muslim community.

Louisville is a city with many diverse people from different religious, cultural and ethnic backgrounds. It also has many religious institutions (Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and others) but there is much need for bridge-building amongst them. The Salaam Network (TSN) is a group of interfaith educators, artists, peacemakers and justice activists who are committed to building a knowledge-based foundation for promoting understanding, amity and wholeness in our city. Since its founding in 2016, The Salaam Network has made a large number of presentations especially on the three Abrahamic traditions at religious as well as educational venues. Many of those presentations were at my church, St. Andrew United Church of Christ. I experienced so much joy when I was able to see Christians, Jews and Muslims gathered together in our church’s sanctuary for learning, discussion and later to share a meal. As a result of the educational programs at our church, one of the local Islamic centers invited my congregation and me to a meal during Ramadan and many of us did in fact attend.

The presentations by The Salaam Network have been made by highly-credentialed scholars who have endeavored to demonstrate that the values that lie at the core of our religious faiths -love, mercy, compassion, justice – can enable us to overcome divisiveness, bigotry and discrimination in our community. They are a small organization with very limited financial resources but they have been making a significant contribution to Louisville.

Educating the community about the “Other” (those who are seen as different, or even as enemies), as well as about issues relating to vulnerable groups such as Women and LGBTQ, is critically important at this time in our history. I would like to see The Salaam Network receive the grant so that they can expand their work and make what they are doing available to many more people through multi-media dissemination.

Rev. Lori Miller-Price

SAINT ANDREW UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

November 19, 2019