Join us to bring the growing spirit of global unity to our communities!
Dear SiVIC Board Members, Affiliates, and Interested Parties
It has been almost a year since we played together in World Interfaith Harmony Week! We hope your communities have continued to grow in compassion, kindness and peaceful cooperation, and that you are looking forward to showing the world once again what you are capable of!
February 1st is just around the corner, and we at SiVIC want to personally invite you to join us for this year’s World Interfaith Harmony Week. May we all come together once again as a community to act in unprecedented, unified ways, bringing compassion to the places it is needed the most! Are you in?
SiVIC invites you to play in the…
World Interfaith Harmony Week Coopetition!
Join us to help create a just and compassionate society!
What is World Interfaith Harmony Week?
The World Interfaith Harmony Week Coopetition is a seven-day global challenge to promote acts of peace, collaboration and tolerance between people of all faith, spiritual, and humanistic traditions. An annual U.N. observance beginning on February 1st and going through February 7th, individuals and teams will use the spirit of coopetition to inspire collaborative acts of service to give back to their communities and strengthen mutual respect, understanding, and harmony between people of all backgrounds.
How Can You Get Involved?
Be sure to check the SiVIC website for events and opportunities during the week.
There are many ways that individuals and teams can play, from organizing creative service projects to performing acts of kindness. (Check out the featured ways to play here.) By signing up to play, individuals and teams receive simple yet profound compassion “missions” to guide their actions each day of the coopetition. These missions make participating in the Compassion Games accessible and meaningful for players of all ages!
You can also participate in one or several of the special World Interfaith Harmony Week Speaker Events hosted by the Charter for Compassion during World Interfaith Harmony Week. You can also get information about and join in the Faith Organizations and EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge (FRC) where faith organizations can help redirect good, wholesome food away from landfills and to food pantries and soup kitchens where it can be used to feed the world’s most vulnerable populations. This fits right in with the special Souper Bowl! Between February 1st and February 7th, congregations and groups will work together to collect as many containers of soup as possible to fill our food banks. Which group can collect the most soup per member?! On Super Bowl Sunday, soup items will be tallied to show how much good can be done by us coming together across the country to work in caring and compassionate action for others.
We also have the opportunity to participate in training through The Listening Project. The Listening Project, a program sponsored by the Ambassador Advisory Council of the Parliament of the World’s, is designed to enhance your effectiveness as interfaith activists. In observance of World Interfaith Harmony Week, why not utilize this great tool to develop in your own interfaith leadership?
The training consists of a series of four sessions, which are recorded and available on the Parliament Website as well as the links below.
- Session 1: A Context for Listening – as a sacred art and a spiritual practice
- Session 2: Cultivating Silence – enhance your capacity to listen to those with diverse beliefs.
- Session 3: Slowing Down to Reflect – heighten your awareness and sensitivity to opportunities for deep listening.
- Session 4: Becoming Present – communicate with courage and passion & speak clearly from your heart.
We all know the importance of good communication, both speaking and listening, in interfaith work. Most often, though, speaking is more valued and attention is given to classes on public speaking and preparing to make a presentation. We are discovering that listening is equally as powerful – and perhaps more important in our interactions, and yet we very seldom think about how we can prepare to listen.
The Listening Project provides exercises and practices that are simple and yet effective in shifting the focus of our interactions to the quality of our listening.
Join Kay Lindahl for a special Listening Project Q&A webinar on February 5th at 10:30 a.m. U.S. Central Time.
How Do the Compassion Games Work?
In addition to receiving daily missions, if you wish to be a Secret Agent of Compassion, players can report on their activities directly onto the Compassion Games website or send your information (date of event, event name, your organization or your name, describe the event and your experience, number of volunteers/players, hours served, people served, and money raised) to a SiVIC point person (joy-ellen@sivicouncil.org or girish.shah@sivicouncil.org) . The reports of Registered Teams (our team is Silicon Valley Interreligious Council) are reflected on the Coopetition Scoreboard, displaying the number of volunteers, number of hours served, number of people served, and the monies raised for local or global causes. The purpose of the scoreboard is not to receive credit for one’s actions (you can report anonymously), but to inspire others by the stories that emerge as a result of players being actively compassionate in the world!
Are you in? We look forward to playing alongside you!
Have any suggestions or questions? Ideas? Feedback? Contact Rev. Joy-Ellen Lipsky at joy-ellen@sivicouncil.org or Girish Shah at girish.shah@sivicouncil.org. Along with SiVIC, other sponsors for the Interfaith Harmony Week Compassion Games include Charter for Compassion, Call of Compassion NW, Interfaith Community Sanctuary, The Interfaith Amigos, Play for Peace, Compassionate Action Network, United Religions Initiative, Service for Peace, and the Parliament of the World’s Religions.