good morning, and welcome to mosaic. i'm honored to be your host this morning. we are about to start a wonderful conversation. we are honored to welcome michael papis which is the execkive director of inner faith council. welcome rita and michael. >> thank you. >> san francisco interface council has a marvelous history and wonderful work. how did it get started? >> it was the result of two disasters. what happened was in the winter of 1988, i was the executive

director of the jewish council. they said they had to help with the homeless problem. it was very cold, wet, winter. there were not city shelters. they asked the faith community to open their doors. i was not at a meeting because i was a clergy. and he came into our office and said rita we have to help. and so we formed an at hawk committee and congregations opened their doors. all the congregations provided meals and we took care of the things for that winter. the following september 1989 we had the earthquake. and then the pastor received a call from church world service. they wanted to help people who had been displaced by the

earthquake. but even though they are a prod substantiate worldwide belief they made it clear they wanted to give money to everybody. so we formed another at hawk interface committee. and to nobodies particular surprise, the same people served on that committee as well. we decided we couldn't keep starting committees every time there was a problem. and we just decided to start the san francisco interface council. >> what is its mandate or mission now, michael? >> the driving missions continue to be disaster preparedness and homelessness. again what was the emergency winter shelter is now the interface winter shelter. and it's the palm springs of shelters in the ice of the city. and we have 40 congregations that are serving meals at for

host site congregations. it's a wonderful experience. in addition we continue to do work with disaster preparedness. for every other year we run workshops to help them as stakeholders respond to disasters. and these have been really wonderful opportunities. we saw with katrina it was the faith community that was there before the federal government. and having been to new orleans recently the faith community continues to be there. we know the role we have to play in the event of a disaster here. we are looking at the fact here is an opportunity to get congregations speaking to each other. and in this case we are doing interface work as we prepare for the inevitable. but in the process we are doing interface work. that is very exciting.

>> there has been fallout from that in this sense for example calvary presbyterian churches. they have gotten to know each other. when it couldn't use its sanctuary because it was being retro fitted calvary offered its sanctuary for their services. and so not only did they provide the sanctuary, but the rabbi spoke there. then when they came back to their sanctuary, pastor jim kitchen spoke and they begun to do things together. >> i would imagine out of this initial disaster response that as interface work becomes normative and not just reactive to a particular event there are

different relationships formed on a bayday-to-day process. >> well, there are all kinds of ways. and i think martin luther king celebration is another example, michael. >> if we play a major role, it's the role of convener. bringing teem together. we do that on a monthly basis with our monthly breakfast which we can speak about later. martin luther king is a perfect farm million where martin luther king was a preacher. he was a minister. but this great pioneer in civil rights and justice. we were asked to take on the mantle that williams had been doing for many, many years. we had 5,000 people coming together to celebrate justice and it was a real wonderful opportunity for us to also

reconnect and connect again not only in the african american community but for instance the contemporary jewish museum. we are partners in this event. they opened their doors. they challenged people and said what is your dream? >> it was a wonderful, wonderful opportunity for us to show the role of the faith community. >> thank you so much. we'll take a quick break.

welcome back to mosaic i'm rabbi erik wonderful to be your host. we're in a wonderful conversation with michael papis and rita who is executive vice chair of the san francisco interface council. welcome back. before the break we were

talking about the ongoing activities. and how it's become more normative for clergy to gather. >> i have to make a correction. it's not only clergy. it's clergy annulate. of course as you may know as a former congregational rabbi it was an important running. so i have to stand up for the lay people. >> please. >> you were talking about the ongoing work of the council. one of the things we are proud of is the second thursday of every month for the early riser -- early risers that is from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 we have a congregation.

they will host that breakfast. it's complimently. and then we have someone offer a meditation from their tradition. and then we bring in an agency or presenter in which congregations can key into. they don't have to reinvent the weal wheal. and finally and i hope rita agrees i think what people enjoy most is the faith journey. next week we are going to be having old first and calvary churches will host the breakfast. we will have rabbi mark who is a conservative rabbi offer the meditation. and then we will have someone faith action universitied come and spoke about the interrogatory response to the budget crisis. what congregations can do to

voice their opinion. and then finally we're going to have a representative of the ladder day saints offer his faith journey. it will be an interesting gathering. we have been getting between 700 clergy leaders coming to be with us. it's a great opportunity for networking and relationship building. >> it seems like in the monthly breakfast there is a microdozennism with a mother of the day we have no determine trappic majority. and while we have on one of our deck strucksen. we have an extraordinary diversity of what people would consider religious in terms of spiritual. and so much of it has to do in

the context of both social justice and personal faith journeys. i wonder how you see that mix. what you observe about that mix. >> san francisco is supposedly a very unreligious community. maybe that is too in terms of actual membership. but you point out a very important thing. a lot of people say i'm not religious. i'm spiritual. but this place our monthly breakfasts gets people an opportunity to express that spiritual aty however they want. fremont is supposed to be the most religiously diverse city in the united states. but i dare say san francisco is a close second because we've got everybody here. and the wonderful part about the interface council is we value everybody. and we start this chair of our council reverend jim starts off our meeting every second

thursday by saying, this is a place where you can be who you are. if you are asked to offer a prayer, you offer it in your terms because that is the wise we learn. >> and so in your years of working in interface work in san francisco, what kind of trends have you seen? >> well, i have seen more interest now than when we started. the san francisco interface council is not the first interface organization in san francisco. we started during the civil rights movement with another organization called the san francisco conference on religion and race. that was started because of concern about session grow grace. we realized quite quickly there were other issues. there were issues of employment, housing, and jobs. those issues still exist. i think the faith community can play a role in calling

attention. >> michael and rita we will take another quick break and come back and copt our conversation. please join us in just a moment.

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and a life is saved, that moment when heartbreak turns to hope, you're there through the american red cross. every day, the red cross responds to nearly 200 neighborhood emergencies. and your support makes it possible. use this moment to join us today. visit redcross.org. welcome back to mosaic. i'm honored to be your host. we're in a continuing conversation with michael papis the executive director of interface council and rita who is is the vice chair. welcome back. we were talking about trends that you've noticed over the years. >> i think probably a big turning point for interface came at 9/11 when there was a

need as you remember too everybody went to their houses of worship during that horrible tragedy and there was a coming of faith and the realization there is a need to talk to one another. it has been given great value to political and public officials as well as the need within community to get to know one another better. we are all neighbors. rita can share a little bit with because i wasn't here at the time of how we responded here in san francisco. and then we've got some exciting news to share with your listeners too regarding about what will happen. >> what happened is mayor willie brown called the leaders of the faith community and we were the interface council was already established so we were there at the table but we were there with other people who at that point didn't want to join

the interface council. but when we were charged with bringing together everybody for the commemoration, they quickly saw that there was value in working together. because we were all so shocked and horrified about what had happened. we knew we had to come together. and so we did do that the following tuesday at civic auditorium. and so i think that was the turning point as michael said in terms of acceptance by the larger community of the rome the face community. >> you remind me of an experience i had when i went down to louisiana. in my case i had got down to baton rouge. the jewish community had moved from new orleans to baton

rouge. people gathered around food and housing and social services. what is also important people began to talk about their faith or spiritual aty. some people in care i say talked about god directly or jesus. and engage in very interesting and very personal ridges thee owe logical that was speared on by dis is tear. but not related to a hungry stalk or how will i get to lay my pep. and wondering if you see some of that also along the way with certainly all the other issues that come to floor like the budget crisis and social services. but that faith journal knee seems to be an under current. >> we mentioned we do have a

faith journey every month. for some people it's the most important part of the conversation. it's amazing to hear pipless stories. everybody can relate to some peoples start of the story. not all. i think that is fair. >> absolutely. you hit on something very important. we will attribute the key to your success. how do you keep their interest and keep them together? we have been able to do that by giving them opportunities to come together, to work together, and i think when they are on that playing field of life. there is trust build and they can feel pest mat. hate zs to be the coming

together and working together for getting to that point where you say you can open up and talk about that which is most inti gnat to you. >> i will take a break and return in a moment.

for more information about the san francisco interface council please call (415)425- 9631 or do to their web at sf- interfaith.org. welcome back to mosaic i'm rabbi erik. we're having a marvelous conversation about interface

activity. we finished the last segment we were talking about how both social justice issues and personal fifth journal knee form a particular bond of support of fabric in the community and how that yields a lot of benefit for the quality of life in san francisco. >> absolutely. and we consider ourselves or the of the facilitators of that conversation. we give people the opportunity and we inform, invite, and convene. i think we would not be telling the whole story if we had not mentioned the role of convener goes even beyond the congregations. it includes the social faith based social agencies. we are convening them and collectively if you can appreciate what they do here to

serve the most vulnerable in our city. serving over three million meals a year. and their budgets are at risk of being cut severely and so we are helping to bring them together to help tell the story collectively of what they do in light of the california budget cuts. we consider that a pretty important role to play. and you will be hearing more about that as the days go on. >> but it's interesting that we are not the only pebble on this beach. there is a marine interface council and there is a interfaith council in contra costa county. and we get together and talk about what we are doing. we each reflect the needs and wishes of the community we serve. so interfaith is alive and well all over the bay area. we would like to think it leads the way for the rest of the

country. but i will have to admit there are people doing it in new york, los angeles, and california, and in portland, oregon. soy think people are beginning to recognize that each persons faith is very important to himself or herself. >> what do you think in today's world is the role of an interfaith council when we are faced certainly within the concept of national media with antireligious feelings in our community so it happens currently with debates about terrorisms and issues in the middle east that the muslim community gets highlighted. other communities have been highlighted that stirred up issues. >> that is very important and michael can speak to that as well. but we can play and do play a

role in bringing together a voice of sanity hopefully. >> we stand with religiouses because fort hood is a good example. here you have somebody from the muslim community that ran a muck. and the instinctive response was to point a finger at a religion. we know that is wrong. we traditionally and foundationally have stood with the oppressed. we are able to help tell the greater story and to really use those opportunities to help inform people in what the religion is really saying. i think that is part of our role. >> do you know how we compare in the bay area to other interfaith experiences to say in chicago or the south or in the east? >> i think we compare very

favorably. the fact people are getting together of different faiths no matter what the essential mission is, it always comes down to learning. you have to learn more. when you and i get together, you no longer become the great unknown. you become someone that i know and i like and i want to work with and we have interest in coming. yes we will disagree on various things but that is okay. >> and on this point too, it's interesting rita and i this past week we are in hayward and meeting with president obama's director of faith based initiatives and volunteerism and partnerships. it's on the president's radar. it's on the radar of folk who realize the value that the faith communities can offer. and i think that really these partnerships by engaging the faith community is going to yield great fruit in terms of what can be done.

we're seeing it locally here. >> believe it or not we have come to the end of our conversation together and so it really is a comma in the conversation. so we encourage people to get ahold of the interfaith council to get together and certainly take advantage of all of your activities. thank you for being with us. and thank you for joining us here on mosaic. have a great day.