Onward with Hope: Gratitude for 2016 and Fortitude for the Future

By: Grace Patterson

January 26, 2017

Sixth Annual President’s Challenge: Reflections on Interfaith Service in Higher Education

For me, this new year brings more occasion for reflection than most. This is the year of Aleppo’s siege, of the shooting at Pulse in Orlando, of mounting violence against Myanmar’s Rohingya population. It is the year of the assault of Muslim women on France’s beaches, of the dramatic uptick in anti-Muslim violence in the United Kingdom following Brexit, the year when rallying support for a ban on Muslims entering the United States helped a successful bid for president.


Religious motivations don’t begin to completely explain what has happened in any of this year’s moments of violence and violent rhetoric, but the undertone of interreligious animus runs through much of the conflict we’ve seen this year. And as someone whose job it is to help build a global movement to end religious violence, I have found myself more afraid than ever before for the future of our world in the face of it all.

But even while the weight of this fear is crushing, as I reflect on 2016 I find persistent hope. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the work of interreligious engagement is not a lost cause because I see this movement gathering steam. I know because in September, I stood in a room full of hundreds of people committed to interfaith engagement.

In Washington, D.C., this fall, I heard from people like Rev. Jide Macaulay, whose House of Rainbow is making strides at the intersection of LGBTQ inclusion and interreligious cooperation, and from Daniel Roth, whose work with the Pardes Institute for Jewish Studies reminds us that religious traditions are a rich resource for conflict resolution. Incredible practitioners like Radia Bakkouch and Charlotte Dando reaffirmed my conviction that young people around the world are not waiting for permission to act in interfaith collaboration. In short, I learned from interfaith leaders around the world and from interfaith movers and shakers from across my country that the fire of interfaith commitment is growing.

As I reflect on 2016 more than three months after the President’s Challenge gathering, the memory of being in the company of these inspiring and innovative people gives me strength and hope for the future.

Events like this one remind us that we are not alone in this work. They are an important source of symbolic strength, but they also bolster our collective impact in more practical ways. The partnerships I and my colleagues have forged at events like this one have led to the flourishing of our interfaith work around the world.

Many of World Faith’s chapters began with meetings at a gathering like this one. When we met Lian Gogali at an event like this several years ago, her story and her work with women for peacebuilding in Indonesia inspired us. Years later, as a World Faith chapter, we have been able to help Lian’s organization grow to serve more than 2,500 people in over 70 villages around Poso, Indonesia.

On the last day of the President’s Interfaith Campus Challenge gathering, I and my colleague Frank sat down with Lian to talk about what she was excited for in the coming months regarding her work and how we could best support it. We talked about new ideas to change the narrative of interreligious violence in Poso and how to measure the impact of these initiatives. The conversation was empowering, bringing an excitement to all of us that is nigh impossible through a computer screen. A gathering of international interfaith leaders launched our partnership, and the Berkley Center’s gathering continued to nurture it.

What I will take away from 2016—and from being part of the international delegation to the President’s Challenge gathering—is the memory of inspiring, collaborative conversations like this one and the assurance that with all of these colleagues supporting one another, 2017 will surely be a better year.
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