Loudoun Interfaith BRIDGES

Goal: $6,000.00

Mission

Loudoun Interfaith BRIDGES envisions a compassionate Loudoun community where people of all faiths come together in collective stewardship to value safety, respect, dignity and equity. B.R.I.D.G.E.S. stands for Building Relationships through Interfaith Dialogue for a Good and Equitable Society.

Profile

Loudoun Interfaith BRIDGES has a wonderful history of gathering community towards ends of broadening participation in multicultural diversity and cooperation. Organized in 2006, it has recently been reorganized by hiring an Executive Director, the Rev. Dr. David Milam, with the purpose of having social action as its key. This vision is embedded in its new organizational vision: “Loudoun Interfaith BRIDGES envisions a compassionate Loudoun community where people of all faiths come together in collective stewardship to value safety, respect, dignity and equity.”

Its very diverse seven-member board includes representatives from the Hindu faith, President Puja Khanna; the Sikh faith, Vice President Gurvinder Singh; the Muslim faith, Treasurer Rizwan Jaka; the Jewish faith, Secretary Ray Daffner; the Baha'i Faith, Mercedeh Izadi; and from the Christian faith, Latina, Eva Maria Torres and Rev. Garrett Wolf. Rev. Dr. David Milam, had served sixteen years as the pastor of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in the Western Loudoun community of Purcellville before starting his role as Executive Director.

In the past two years, BRIDGES has put its new vision into action in innovative, highly visible and much appreciated ways. These include:

Safety. Vigilant in a time when hatred is too often named openly, BRIDGES reengaged the community with two significant events: A Vigil at the site in South Riding where hate grafitti marked an shopping center. 200 people came together on a cold December night to hear prayers and comments by leaders of diverse faith communities and elected officials who shared message after message that hate has no home here. Loudoun County Board of Supervisors Chair, Phyllis Randall, ended the 90 minute engagement by telling those gathered that "the time of sitting on the sidelines were over." We were all charged with the welfare and well-being of all our neighbors.
Vigils were also arranged when gun violence ended the lives of nineteen children and two of their teachers at Uvalde Elementary School. These vigils marked the violence that had taken place at several other schools, church, mosques, synagogues, gurdwaras, grocery stores, work places, and entertainment festivals. At one of the vigils, we named those we knew who had died by suicide -- friends, family members, colleagues -- marking how familiar gun violence has come to almost every person at the event. In a later community gathering, we lamented the tenth anniversary of gun violence at Sandy Hook Elementary. Guest speaker Fred Guttenberg spoke of how his life had changed after losing his daughter, Jaime. Chair Randall, Sheriff Chapman, Moms Demand Action, Suzie Bartel were among those who gathered at the Northern Virginia Baha'i Center reminding ourselves of how broad is the appeal for gun sense laws and their enforcement.
Respect. Organizing regional gatherings through out the county to build and bridge relationships between for clergy, school principals and elected officials at eight regional luncheons. These have collectively attracted two hundred community leaders seek to be local and small enough to create personal connections between these three groups of leaders. The hope is that such gatherings build greater social trust, bringing cooperation and collaboration between schools, faith communities and civic leaders. They are going fantastically! The partnership with Loudoun County Public Schools has been welcome.
As social advocates, BRIDGES has also teamed with New Virginia Majority and the Community Foundation to support efforts to help residents gain affordable housing.
Dignity. When there are tensions between faith communities, BRIDGES seeks to stay engaged with all parties, while facilitating discussion and the pursuit of peace. In the past year, BRIDGES has lamented the horrendous violence suffered by innocent Israeli citizens, while also grieving deeply with Palestinians of Muslim and Christian faiths in the war in Gaza that followed. Our desire is to be a place where conversations may be invited so that justice and peace might be a realized hope. Towards that end, a group of rabbis and imams were convened for discussion on October 15 and a forum for local religious leaders was held on December 3, 2023. BRIDGES continues to seek engagement between those who are deeply connected to the great hurt and violence that continue in the Holy Land of Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths.
We also had gathered youth for an interfaith forum on how to encourage greater Youth Mental Health, getting support and help to those especially in need.
Equity. Facilitating interfaith relationships. An Interfaith Comedy Night at the ADAMS Center in 2023 had participants from Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, Baha'i, Protestant, Catholic, Quaker, the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints, and Unitarians laughing together as an icebreaker so that the dinner that followed found people of different faith traditions joyously open to share about themselves with others. BRIDGES also organized a Picnic at Algonkian Park celebrating our shared community with music from the Sikh community. Rev. Milam and Board members are present in many community events including Iftar Dinners, Yom Kippur services, cultural festivals, anti-hate trainings, Juneteenth celebrations and the like.
Along these lines, BRIDGES was asked to show organized support for the Equity Resolution presented to the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors at their January 2023 meeting. The dozen BRIDGES speakers effectively changed the vicious tone of previous such public comment times, by having clergy and faith leaders publicly support diversity, equity and inclusion values.

Loudoun Interfaith BRIDGES seeks not only to maintain these efforts, but to strengthen its ties with a broad range of faith communities, open to finding how these together might find common and peaceful, generous and trust-building purposes.