Park City Interfaith Council
Art: Houston Trueblood
The primary mission of the Interfaith Council is to offer a context of compassion for those in leadership roles in the local faith community,” explains Tim Dahlin, executive director of the Christian Center and outgoing president of the Park City Interfaith Council. “We strive to maintain an open dialogue about the importance of a spiritual perspective, even if we disagree about theological particulars.”
Now entering its 29th year, the Park City Interfaith Council is comprised of representatives from about a dozen faith-based groups in the Park City area. The council meets monthly for a casual breakfast gathering, rotating meeting locations among the various houses of worship in the area. “When the council was first created, we met in local restaurants, but as we began to get to know each other, we met in our own homes. And, as congregations grew and places of worship were built, we moved our meetings to these gathering spaces,” offers Mary Hanscom, the representative from the local Christian Science church.
Hanscom has been involved since the group’s inception in 1982, when the Lutheran pastor and the Episcopalian deacon invited the handful of area churches to form an ecumenical council. When a Jewish congregation joined the faith community in the early 1990s, the name was changed to the Park City Interfaith Council.
The Interfaith Council oversees a community traveler’s aid fund, which offers vouchers for food or gas for down-on-their-luck travelers. One of the group’s other functions is “to serve as a staging area for common times of celebration,” says Dahlin. “We host a Memorial Day service, a Thanksgiving celebration of gratitude and a ceremony to honor the National Day of Prayer in May.”
All of these communal services are free and open to the public. For those interested in becoming involved with the Interfaith Council, Dahlin suggests talking with the spiritual leader of your own faith group.
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