New Haven Green at College & Elm

  Interfaith Service Festival 2024
Sunday, August 4th 
8:30 am to 4:00 pm

Read the Festival Program Let Us Known You're Coming Download & Share the Flyer Subscribe to our newsletter


"We are all in this together"

Now more than ever is a time for reflection and connection. Our interfaith service projects provide a meaningful way of getting to know your neighbors while helping those in need.  Join us at the Interfaith Service Festival for a day of listening, learning, and lifting up by volunteering in service to others, raising awareness in discussion groups, and understanding in sharing circles as we embrace our diversity. Arrive anytime or spend the day! Admission is free and open to all ages. All that is required to participate is your physical and spiritual presence but please let us know you're coming by signing up here now.

  • 8:30 am
    Registration Opens - Please visit the Registration Tent to sign in
  • 8:45 am
    Welcome Reflections & Remarks
  • 9:00 am to 12:00 pm
    Morning Projects and Sessions ( see below for on the green & offsite project details and times )
  • 11:45 am to 12:30 pm
    Kosher Cookout for everyone - bring your lawn chairs & blankets! Enjoy a meal, join a conversation circle.
  • 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm
    Afternoon Projects and Sessions ( see below for on the green & project details and times )
  • 4:00 pm
    Closing Reflections

Blessing Bag Service Project

We are building 600 blessing bags with over $12,000 of essentials for the unhoused.

Please contribute what you can. 

Make a Blessing Bag Donation

A Kosher Cookout

We are feeding over 400 service day volunteers with our midday feast and interfaith celebration
See the fare here:   MENU

The cost of this kosher meal is $18,000. Please contribute what you can.

Make a Kosher Cookout Donation

Service Festival - Projects and Session Times

* Round trip private bus transportation from the Green to offsite service projects is provided courtesy of IWagePeace.

* Clean our Beaches
with Save the Sound

Shuttle departs Green at  
9:15 & 10:00 am 

Returns to Green
at 12:00 pm

Prepare 600 Blessing Bags with essential items for the unhoused
with Beth-El Center &
Columbus House

Session Times:
AM:  9:15. 10:15, & 11:15
PM:  1:45 & 2:45 


* Restore a sacred cemetery
with Hebrew Burial and Free Loan Association New Haven

Shuttle departs Green
AM
9:15 & 10:00  ~ return at 11:45
PM  
1:45 ~ return at 3:00 

Construct affordable housing
with Habitat for Humanity GNH
Preregistration required
space limited to 12 volunteers
Drive to meet at offsite project
8:30 am

Learn the details & 
Register Here

Prepare sandwiches & serve guests
with Chapel on the Green

A ministry for the
hungry & unhoused
1:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Sign up early ~ 
space is limited

Transform confiscated gun barrels into garden tools & jewelry
with Swords to Plowshares Northeast

All Day ~ Anytime
and
Gun Violence Prevention
Discussion Circles
AM: 9:30 and 10:30
PM: 1:30 and 2:30

Advocate for humane conditions for our CT prison population
with Stop Solitary CT

11:00 am:
Discussion with formerly incarcerated advocates
and
1:30 pm:
"Transforming Corrections" 
A film showing at United Church


Hand paint
a huge 48 ft long
mural
with a message
with I Wage Peace

All Day ~ Anytime

Visit the Crypt
A burial ground
for our early settlers
 beneath the
meetinghouse 
with Center Church on the Green

Tour Times:
9:45 am & 2:00 pm

Learn how you can
fight food insecurity
with Purple Pantry Boxes

Open for Visitors
9:30 am - 12:00 pm
&
1:30 pm to 3:00 pm

A Teach In 
with Rosette Neighborhood Village
Meet

Meet the village residents 
on the Green
All Day ~ Anytime
and then
* visit the Rosette Village
AM:  9:15, 10:00, 10:45
PM:  2:00, 2:45


#Nation of Welcome
with Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services - IRIS

Meet with IRIS families
!0:00 am & 11:00 am
and
* visit the IRIS Housing & Donation Center and Food Pantry
1:30 pm

A display of hand painted
Painting for Peace
billboard murals
from over the years
with IWagePeace

All Day ~ Anytime

The 2024 Interfaith Service Festival Partners ...with more to follow soon!

  • Abdul Majid Karim Hasan Islamic Center Hamden
  • Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel New Haven
  • Congregation B'nai Jacob Woodbridge
  • Elm Community Insight New Haven
  • Evening Star Holiness Church Milford
  • First Presbyterian Church New Haven
  • First & Summerfield United Methodist New Haven
  • First United Church of Christ Milford
  • Jerusalem Peacebuilders
  • Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven
  • Mary Taylor Memorial United Methodist Church
  • Muhammad Islamic Center of Greater Hartford
  • New Haven Friends Meeting 
  • New Haven Zen Center
  • Regional Baha'i Council of the Northeastern States
  • Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church Madison
  • Saint John XXIII Catholic Community West Haven
  • Saint Peter's Episcopal Church Milford
  • Saint Matthew's Episcopal Church Wilton
  • Shalom United Church of Christ New Haven
  • Temple Beth David Cheshire
  • Temple Beth Sholom Hamden
  • Temple Emanuel of Greater New Haven
  • Trinity Episcopal Church Southport
  • Trinity on the Green New Haven
  • Unitarian Society of New Haven
  • United Church on the Green New Haven
  • United Congregational Church Bridgeport
  • Walk of Faith Church New Haven
  • Woodmont United Church of Christ Milford

Remember Our Slogans:

We are all in this together
We do not need to agree on everything to work together for justice and peace.
We will not let the perfect become the enemy of the good.
Humor doth the heart like good medicine

Why Interfaith Service?
Interfaith service addresses one of the greatest challenges facing our communities: Diversity. Who are these Jews, these Christians, these Muslims, these aliens in our midst from other lands and religions? Well, let’s get to know them. Because we are in fact “All In This Together”, we must actively seek ways of working and being together, building the bridges necessary for a diverse and wonderful community. God did not make us a single people of one language, one skin color, one size, one religion. God made us diverse. And because we are diverse, interesting, complex and wonderful, we at times get confused and offend one another. We need time together to learn and grow as a community that enjoys and respects the differences among our peoples.

Over the years:   

The IWagePeace Projects    

Interfaith Service
Festivals

Painting for Peace
& the Billboard Campaigns

Documentary Film:
"The Billboard from Bethlehem"

Combatants
for Peace Tours

The
IWagePeace
Walks

IWagePeace is a Connecticut 501(c)(3) not for profit that inspires and educates Americans about peacemaking through creative interfaith gatherings, community service projects, public displays of art, and more.  Our work is made possible by your spiritual and physical presence.  We hope you'll join us.

Thank you for being part of the IWagePeace community.

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381 Highland St.
West Haven, CT 06516

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