good morning and welcome to mosaic, i pastor elizabeth from st. mark's church in san francisco and i have guests from the peninsula multifaith coalition. welcome, pastor connie winter you will. , pastor st. andrews lutheran church. pastor christie denholm, you are in belmont and serve the congregational church, part of the united church of christ. welcome to both of you.

>> thank you, it's good to be here. >> you are part of the peninsula multifaith coalition. what is the peninsula multifaith coalition? >> power coalition is made up of 26 different faith communities that are joined together. we have seven different religions that join us. so jews, christians, buddhists, hindu, baha'i and muslims. obviously there are many different publications from each of those pics >> what do you do? >> we do a lot of community service together. we found out getting to know each other and the education about what different faiths are is a part of our monthly gatherings. we gather that for the first half-hour we are always listening to somebody talk about what their faith reads to them or about a certain belief that they have. or how that prayed together. sometimes we are meeting at different faith houses every

month. we are praying with them and learning from them. a lot of times they let us do different celebrations so we get to extend our education with them other times a month. >> wonderful, wonderful. pastor christie, you are one of the founding members of the coalition. what was the deed that you saw in 2012 that value altogether? >> for me, there was a personal need that i was due to the peninsula in 1989. shortly thereafter came the 11 in 2001 and i wanted folks to know about each other so we could be kinder to each other. plus, i needed colleagues from a variety of faith. i was lonely, so i started working in developing relationships with other clergy and we started doing education programs. as one of our colleagues often pointed out to me, it was always the same folks showing up for these events.

in 2012 we realized really what we could do to deepen relationships and expand our understanding was to service together. we discovered that if we did it on the monday, then all our faith traditions could be there and we started a martin luther king day of service, primarily because it was the one day we can work together to actually to community service. i know oths will talk about that, because for me it has been a gift of relationship and friendship. have not only developed colleagues, but friends from every asked. in my tradition, of course we are also ministers of the gospel. i am just a higher health. we are all learning together how to be compassionate people of justice and the other faiths teach me as much as i can learn. >> but interfaith work means that you are learning about differences as well. and that can be hard. say how you have dealt with

that. >> it can be hard, because things are new and different. we need to understand more. for instance, the muslims that will come masato and if tar dinner is there breaking their fast, but we do it at a jewish temple. hundreds of people come and they are educating us, but we are gathering together and it's so beautiful. kids, and they want to know what goes on. i just got invited to a jewish festival, that was really wonderful to be able to understand what it is and what the new year of the trees was. like, gosh, how wonderful that is. but we are all gathering together. but when we are serving, that means we can release share who we are. >> is coalition primarily for test on serving? do service projects in the communities? >> yes, that is like our first focus. there is also a continuing

hunger for learning about each other those who are volunteer liaisons who meet monthly to plan our annual major event and other smaller events also want to find ways to learn more about each other. so we have other events that we do throughout the year that i primarily educational as well. >> exactly, we did, this last year i planned a woman of faith panel, so that women could come together and talk about this is how my faith is actually being a part of my life and how it brought me out of the depths of despair. >> but for each of them to say that about a different faith, it is just got wonderful. the women went really in-depth and afterwards we sat around roundtables in these women spoke about each other and how their faith has affected their lives. >> med were there also. we invited men to learn and share their experience. it made them a little jealous that we were able to go as deep

about our faith and how it improved our lives. and they're talking about, how can we do something that is meant focused? have had a few thousand years, we will have to do something later. >> what are the other service projects that you do? i know martin luther king jr. day is the monday of service. >> exactly, that day there like 26 different projects. we have like 484 volunteers and morning on a locate a january 2019 that's impressive. >> really, the volunteers afterwards were talking to us afterwards saying 90% at a party or had a positive experience volunteering. that's incredible. they really felt like they did something good to help people beyond the peninsula. >> a lot of children are involved. >> one third of the volunteers

are children and they get turned on to volunteering. a group of teens from the church wanted to do more. so they started -- >> we will hear more when we come to our next segment of mosaic. claiming

store back in morning and welcome back to mosaic.

i have our guests with me from the peninsula multifaith coalition. pastor connie and pastor christie, we have been hearing about the wonderful work the coalition is doing. pastor christie, you're saying you have teens in your congregation that are very encouraged about this work. >> they got so excited at their first martin luther king day of service and they said we want to start an interfaith teen group and i said okay, i will be your sponsor. and we would out and reached out to the other 26 congregations and developed a wonderful program. they did a couple of service projects. the problem with teenagers is by the end of their second year they are getting ready for college and they lose their ability to focus as much. so it's been sort of a push me/pull me project. but the energy that they gained from it, they took him to the college experience. then i've got my younger kids who started when they were eight setting up

tables at the first breakfast and they are now the most passionate service people in our community. and our small church, more than half of the congregation participates in them okay every year. they write eloquent articles of about what they learned from the experience and they know they do with the air something for others. and they push the need to do more than that is justice oriented in the church. which is kind of a flip-flop to have a congregation driving us into the work that our hearts know it is the right thing to do. >> yeah, they're leading you. pastor connie, you are going to share about how these interfaith relationships have affected your community. >> certainly, kids in my congregation are very eager to do service work and they love and located. there are others who say i am a

gardener, so i want to get away school into corning that day. they set up for that. i have other people who really want to do craft projects. but they love doing that and they will make sure they are interfaith friends. they want to sit by someone who was muslim or hindu and the seek that out on that day to check in with those folks. beyond that, we have had people , muslim folks who have asked us over for lunch at their home. but these are friendships that we have gotten over mlk day. my congregation is really they are loving this and certainly they left when someone of another faith ask us for some thing in particular. that's really wonderful to have everybody see it. christie and i, we always add a lot to our sermons about the multifaith coalition. because we are excited about this work. when we talk about

peace, we talk about loving others and there are always stories. >> this really permeates your entire community and congregations. christie, you want is a word about that and then the upcoming forums coming up. >> i have preached about the peninsula multifaith coalition and peninsula multifaith.org every week almost these days. my congregation is not getting tired of it we know how much it impacts their lives and our lives. we the speaker series, march 13. it will be a soup supper gathering with speakers from the hindu tradition, islam and sikh is in each week for a half hour speaker, questions and a soup supper.

and for conversation around the dinner tables where folks can get to know each other even better. the whole series will end on april 10. each wednesday evening folks will learn more and share more, getting to know each other more, which is one of our main goals, to build relationships. >> and people can learn about the series on your website. >> peninsulamultifaith.org. >> we will come back to mosaic in a minute and introduce another guest has been involved with the peninsula multifaith coalition. can morning. can morning. [ cell phone rings ]

>> yeah, i'm watching it too. i see them every day. >> the curtains, they're always drawn in this place. >> i know. >> that guy, it seems like he's in charge of them. i don't know, i don't feel very good about this. >> we have to report this. >> yes, absolutely.

welcome back to mosaic. this morning we have guests from the peninsula multifaith coalition. joining me as pastor connie what are you will break and now dick hyman, yuri congregate at, just tell us. >> peninsula temple in san mateo. >> and you are one of the founders of the multifaith volition. what got you involved in this work? so a rabbi did. a rabbi at the time that reverend christie knows, rabbi byrd. after 9/11, he saw that the congregations were drawing in on themselves and he felt it was very important to reach out and help us initiate an interfaith friendship committee. it started with three or four of us in know it has 15 or 16

active member that reach out to congregation in our neighborhood and exchange services, of dialogue, exchange meals, and that was kind of the start of it. >> why are you interested in this work? >> you can't have too many friends. as jews we can't have too many friends, as muslims we can have too many friends. christians, hindus, however, we just can't have too many friends. and that got me started. let's reach out and make some friends. >> why is this work so important to you, pastor connie? >> it is because of the connections. i never thought we could be silent, meaning just come together in an isolation. farmers are using silos anymore.

doctor farmers in wisconsin, a very lutheran area and they are not because they're using flat storage. why? is easy to access the food. now, we need to connect to other people and there are times of trouble. i also want to learn. i go to study at prichard frames temple on tuesday nights. that is such a wonderful community to me. they are extremely educational and there my connections with them, their support of me as a christian pastor and there are times of trouble. 27 targeted, muslims have been targeted. sikh's, because people don't understand them at all. we need to get together, because i am in the work because it's piecework, for me it's all about peace.

there are plenty of people bringing up divides and putting up walls and separating one person from another. but i think we need to make connections. >> why does the peninsula multifaith coalition were so well? >> when christie was appearing, she talked about her long history on the peninsula, over 20 years of creating interfaith, and, exchanging services, talking with each other. as she mentioned, it was a little bit singing to the choir. we saw the same 30 or 40 people. a few of us got together and our christian neighbors said when we do a community service in our congregation, we draw more congregants to it. and the light went on. that is been the magic. like this last mlk day, we had

over 450 volunteers. in the last seven years, we have connected with over 1500 congregants amongst our 26 congregations. why? because they saw the magic of doing community service together. and it's especially interesting with the parents. we didn't realize this. we thought this was an adult event that turned out that way. parents quickly saw that they could bring their children, with their children they could do community service in an interfaith environment. and now a third of our participants at mlk day our children. >> that's wonderful and it's the interfaith environment, i would think, that would draw the children, teens and families together. >> exactly. >> we can see why the peninsula multifaith coalition is being awarded the jewish community

relations council memorial humanitarian award. congratulations to you and we will say a word about that in just a minute when they return. just a minute when they return.

welcome back to our guest

from the peninsula interfaith coalition on the mosaic show this morning. dick, you're talking about all the friends that you made, the deep friends. >> what goes around comes around. i personally made so many wonderful friends. but when there are problems, we are there for each other. this is not a political organization. this is not even a social justice building housing organization. this is an organization of reaching out, making friends, understanding each other and being there for each other. so when recently there were some shootings at the synagogue in pittsburgh, who were the ones that first stood up for us and our congregation? it was our multifaith partners. in many ways. personal ways and professional ways. another example, is our turkish muslim friends in the

pacific institute are part of the international his pet movement. there is tremendous fracture in turkey and we have stood up for them. what goes around comes around. >> and you would like to be a resource for others who may be interested in this kind of coalition. >> we talked about the magic of doing community service together. it sounds easy, but it's not so easy. when you are having 484 volunteers to 26 projects at 10 different sites, there are a lot of moving pieces. so we have learned a lot about how to do community service together in an interfaith environment. and we are willing to share that. we hope that others that are currently doing wonderful dialogue and wonderful interchange between services

and fabrications, but they want to take it to another level and they want to get more of the congregants involved, we are here to help. >> wonderful, wonderful. >> as the president of the multifaith coalition, we want to do is put together a video. something we can be able to tell people more about what's going on. i think maybe if we could video to say this is what we are doing, just with the service part, then we should be able to educate other people. we are willing to go out and share. because this is moving pieces get screwed. >> and you're all volunteer, correct? have any staff? >> yes we do, but we have had a hard time -- >> up until this year we have had no staff and we burned out some leaders. so we have a part-time event coordinator for mlk day. >> your website is a great resource for people who may be interested in either joining you

, or learning more about what you're doing and what you can do elsewhere. >> we have a lot on our website , it's peninsulamultifaith.org. >> out of the contact us? >> through the website. >> yes, okay. and again you have enough upcoming speaker series in march and people are invited to show up and come to that? yes, exactly. >> and problems throughout the year. just briefly say what those are. >> right, we do a women of faith panel. this weekend we are doing a song fest, that is singers and people playing drums and all kinds of different things from different faiths that are coming together. >> wonderful. i can see why the jewish community relations council is awarding you the tom lantos memorial humanitarian award for all of your good work. as it

says, for your exemplary interfaith bridgebuilder and community service. i mean, it really focused on the bridge building, as you spoke about. >> and j crc has been artifice from the very beginning. one of the representatives, one of our original founding members and they have some staff. so have been a little bit of the coalition. >> and they can help you and will continue to help you. do you want to help others interested in his work. so again, your website is? >> peninsulamultifaith.org. >> it is a wonderful website, i was on it earlier and i encourage everybody to go on the website. thank you so much, mister dick hyman, founding member of the peninsula multifaith coalition, reverend connie, winter you'll work not only are you insane

afferents lose interest to you are the president of the word. and kristi done him also a founding member, thank you for being here this morning. i want to say thank you. and on behalf of reverend ron swisher who is my cohost and our beloved producer, the late hugh burrows, and elizabeth beck dale and thank you for viewing mosaic this morning. i look forward to our next show with you. have a blessed sunday morning. thank you. blessed sunday morning. thank you. 's

the recent storms really left their mark on area streets and the potholes show it. plus service off the rails, they're still not sure exactly what happened. that time of year again, time to spring back into the debate over daylight savings times. it's 6:00 this is sunday, march 10.. >> it feels like it's going to look darker as we go through the morning for sure. to push the