Song and Spirit

Song and Spirit promotes greater understanding among people of diverse religious, cultural and ethnic backgrounds through music, art, cultural programs, dialogue, study, and compassionate acts of community service. This cultural and spiritual exchange advances the realization of Justice and World Peace.

THE VISION When we experience another’s culture, their music, rituals, beliefs — we come to understand that there are no others — we are all one people seeking the same human relationships, grappling with the same Divine Mysteries.

Song and Spirit provides a focus for creating a deep and meaningful connection between peace-making, compassionate action and social justice, a larger goal that resonates naturally with all people of faith who seek to build on a tradition of service, and a commitment to “…act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.” In doing so, Maggid Steve, Brother Al and Mary link a Christian commitment to peace, social justice and the integrity of creation with the Franciscan charism of serving the poor, marginalized and outcast; we also link the liberal Judaism’s Interfaith Outreach initiative with the overarching Jewish Social Action imperative of tikkun olam (repairing the world).

In these ways, we seek to further the quest for true Shalom, from the Hebrew root shaleim – wholeness, completeness. More than just the absence of strife, we seek a Peace that heals a broken world, which completes that which has been left undone.