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Interfaith Impact Network tunes into issues for change
Friday, October 19, 2001 By Ervin Dyer, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
On Sunday, the Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network goes public.
The grassroots network made up of about 30 congregations and faith-based groups has been quietly organizing behind the scenes for two years.
Now, it will bring its fight to heighten civil rights and other social concerns out in the open -- and in worshipful style.
There will be prayers from Christians, Muslims and Jews beginning at 4 p.m. at Wesley Center African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in the Hill District. There will be gospel music and the sounding of the shofar, the ram's horn trumpet used in Jewish worship. There will singing and dancing, and a pledge of connecting to make a difference.
Network officials are calling the event a "covenanting."
When the worship ends, the network's task of battling social ills kicks in. First on the agenda will be conversations with political, corporate and community leaders.
"We're targeting a lot of people, because there's no one solution," said the Rev. Samuel Ware of New Life AME Church, a member of the group's executive committee. "There's no one problem."
After building relationships, the network hopes to use its multiracial, urban and suburban congregations to tackle everything from poverty to voter registration.
Task forces created by the network have researched transportation, housing, education, economic development and criminal justice. In January, that research will be used to launch an "issues" convention at which the membership will decide on three critical issues that it will target for changes.
Faith-based organizing is nothing new. For decades, churches have used it to press for social change. In the wake of the terrorist attacks, prayer vigils and congregational collaboration are being used to help to heal the nation. The Pittsburgh network hopes to use the momentum from the spiritual resurgence to build a strong base.
"We know that members of all faiths and traditions can work together to bring about changes that will improve the lives of all people in our region," said the Rev. Johnnie Monroe, the network's president and pastor of Grace Memorial Presbyterian Church, Hill District.
Across the country, churches have organized for more affordable housing, to change teacher-pupil ratios in public schools and to push for mortgages for underserved communities.
The Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network was born in 1999 when local clergy met with the Gamaliel Foundation, a Chicago-based group that provided training on community organizing. The network is supported by a three-year grant of $130,000 from the Pittsburgh Foundation.
Some congregations involved are St. Benedict the Moor Church, Unitarian Universalist Church of the South Hills, Religious Society of Friends and First Allegheny United Presbyterian Church. The Pittsburgh Association of Priests, Pittsburgh Leadership Foundation and National Conference of Community and Justice are also members.
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