Interfaith Thanksgiving Prayer Breakfast
San Francisco Interfaith Council
November 23, 2011
Rainy morning. Alarm off at 6:00am. Quick getaway to drive to downtown San Francisco by 7am to attend the Interfaith Breakfast hosted by The San Francisco Interfaith Council, a URI CC. I parked in the semi-darkness and noticed waves of people heading my direction. In total 350 were in attendance. All were punctual! This was the 13th Annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Prayer Breakfast. It honored, “Unsung Healers: Hospital and Hospice Chaplains.” I was nourished by the friendly atmosphere, lovely but simple breakfast, a thoughtful program. We heard “What do Chaplain’s Do?” and “Youth Speak,” poetry about healing and racism. We applauded a roll call honoring many chaplains and participated in “Prayers for the People of the City” from different perspectives and faith traditions What I can’t describe about this experience so matter-of-factly is the comfort and strength I felt being in this in crowd. I was buoyed by the synergy of like-hearts coming together early in the morning in my city. We were diverse people neither afraid of nor isolated from one another. We seemed to bring an essence of what we share in common. Chaplains, police, veterans, public officials, homeless shelter workers, presidents of colleges, imams, priests, rabbis and ministers – all of us seemed enlivened this morning by each other’s goodness and care. Thank you to the SF Interfaith Council and to all URI CCs and interfaith groups around the world that create community spaces like this one to remind us of the best in ourselves.
