December 19, 2022
Dear Friends of the Interfaith Center at the Presidio,
Season’s Greetings to you and yours as we invite you to continue our work in making the Bay Area a more understanding and civil place for people from all faith traditions.
The ICP’s mission of religious collaboration for social justice has never been more urgent. Confronting the rise in hate speech and violent incidents targeting Asians, Jews, and Muslims, we have been working with Bay Area Interfaith Leaders in developing Public Service Announcements under the banner of “We All Belong.” Filming is under way and the announcements will begin to appear during the first quarter of the New Year.
The McDonald Peace Windows is winding up a very successful four-month exhibition at the War Memorial Veterans Building in San Francisco’s Civic Center. We continue to move forward with our Capital Campaign to renovate the Chapel and create a permanent gallery for the Windows. Even though the last couple of Covid years have had a notably negative impact on fundraising for all Non-Profits like ours, we faithfully continue to press forward by keeping our eye on the prize.
We continue to fill the Chapel with music through our popular interfaith monthly concert series which has never missed a beat even through – and coming out of – the Covid years.
The ICP’s commitment to Veterans remains strong and effective. We hosted the Presidio Memorial Day observance, the Blessing of the Fleet interfaith service, and we worthily honored our Veterans on November 11th. All were hailed for their inspiration by the attending public.
We continue to host regular monthly Bay Area Interfaith Leaders conferences where we explored and shared the best practices of Bay Area Interfaith Councils. One of the achievements of these collaborations has been the adoption of the Charter for Compassion’s principles as a means of measuring the effectiveness of each Council’s work. We formally declared the Bay Area to be a Compassionate Region.
Regretfully, the national conversation remains divisive, and the challenges remain daunting. Thankfully, however, there is also a rising tide of solidarity, good will and social conscience. We depend on friends like you to share our vision and to support our ultimate mission – to bring cooperation, justice and understanding throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
We invite you to donate to the ICP by mailing your donation to P.O. Box 29055, San Francisco, CA 94129 or making your donation on our website https://www.interfaithpresidio.org/donate.html
Many blessings to you and yours!
Reverend Gerald P. Caprio
Executive Director and Board Chair
The Interfaith Center at the Presidio links the power of interreligious cooperation by welcoming, serving, and celebrating the diverse wisdom and faith traditions of the Bay Area.