Interfaith Service Day
ifsd 2022

Save the Date!

Interfaith Service Day 2023
Sunday August 6th

Please mark your calendar, bring your family, your friends, and your faith community to the 3rd Interfaith Service Day on the New Haven Green.

Sign up here for our newsletter to follow the 2023 details as they unfold. Let's do it again! We look forward to seeing you there!

Interfaith Service Day 2022

On Sunday August 7th 2022 in New Haven CT, Interfaith Service Day brought a diversity of faith and community groups together in fellowship and goodwill. Through this event we collectively sent the message that we are one people, that we have nothing to fear from our differences, and that in fact, our differences make us a strong, vibrant, and dynamic community. We can disagree on doctrine and theology while respecting, learning, and enjoying one another. To each and every one who joined together for this day of community service and celebration of our like-mindedness, thank you! Amen!     

Watch Interfaith Service Day in action:

Our 2022 photo/video compilation featuring original music written and performed by IWagePeace Founder Bruce A. Barrett, "A New Wave Rolling"  

Our Seven Volunteer Service Projects 2022
Hebrew Free Loan and Burial Association
At the Jewish Cemetery, a team of a dozen volunteers raised 32 stone markers and cleaned another 10. Among the deceased they reflect as they bring hope and life.  Thank you, Cemetery Restoration Crew! Thank you Paul Terman of the Hebrew Burial and Free Loan Association and thank you Rabbi Joshua!
Save the Sound
The “beach” bus was standing room only. A park along the harbor was cleaned of debris that pollutes the sound. This gallant group of forty removes 200 pounds of trash, a hub cap, a crumbling picnic table, over 2,000 bottle caps, and stopped over 2,000 cigarette butts from leaching harmful chemicals into our waterways.  Three cheers for the forty volunteers on the Save The Sound team, led by Kristen Schick. Great Job!
Community Soup Kitchen
A jolly interfaith crew of twelve or more laughed and chatted away in the Christ Church dining room. It is hot, the mood happy and determined, fully engaged, lighthearted, spreading mustard on bread with turkey, cheese and making PB&Js.  Great job Sandwich Team, and thank you Father Steven Holton and Christ Church for hosting.


Habitat for Humanity
At the Habitat for Humanity Warehouse,  our service team worked hard in the heat with brutal scrappy yard work and a helmet cleaning team in the basement. They held themselves well, with good spirits despite the humidity. So cheers loudly for this noble crew and thank you Habitat for Humanity for hosting and helping us provide housing for those in need.
Christian Community Action
Twenty of our team boarded a bus to visit  the New Hope transitional housing program. After a tour, many of our volunteers remained  to paint and clean and help them ready the building. Those returning to the Green were excited and hopeful. Blessings and thank you Charmain Yun for leading the tour and guiding the work flow.
IWagePeace.Org
The billboard mural was hand painted by clusters of friends and strangers: painting a wheelchair, a person praying, someone leaping, the colors and the message "Serve, Pray, Heal" jumping off the canvas. 

Swords to Plowshares Northeast

In the heat of the day on the Green, a line forms at the anvil where volunteers test their strength at the hammer. They pound glowing red steel, turning guns into garden tools, they pound. The hammer strikes and rings over the Green, “ping, ping, ping....” turning war into peace.

Afterwards , service project teams walked or boarded buses back to the New Haven Green to enjoy a pizza and salad lunch, hear reports from our volunteer team members, listen to interfaith reflections, and enjoy a live music performance.

“Gather around the pizza truck,” I called, (click on the photo  to see!) and shouted and sang until those not fasting feasted long and hard, each marking this day in their own way by their traditions; for this is Tisha B'Av and for some a day of fasting.

Half of you, bless you all, tired from the hot work, returned home after lunch. Half of you stayed for reflections from the Jewish, Christian, Muslim, and Baha’i traditions. Each separate voice connected to the whole. Thank you Rabbi Joshua Pernick from the Jewish Federation, Reverend Luke DeVolder from Trinity Episcopal Church on the Green, Imam Bilal Ansari, and Rachael Gonzales Ryan and your team.

A wind, wild and hot, grew and blew down the music stands, but the syncopations of the Afro-Semitic Experience kept on keeping on, bass plucking, saxophone humming, trumpet popping, the groove lifting our hearts as we painted the last corners of the billboard grateful for this time of joy as we served, prayed, and healed each other.

Watch: WTNH News 8 Coverage

"Interfaith Service Day returns to New Haven  8/7/22"

Serve, Pray, Heal Billboard Mural

Interfaith Service Day came in partnership with Jerusalem Peacebuilders and was made possible by a generous donation from the Episcopal Church in Connecticut and with the participation of 17 faith community partners:

Trinity Church on the Green New Haven
The Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven
Muslim Coalition of Connecticut
Christ Church New Haven
Regional Baha’i Council of the Northeastern States
St. Andrew's Episcopal Church Madison
Woodmont UCC Milford
Congregation Mishkan Israel Hamden
St. Peter's Episcopal Church Milford
Congregation Beth-El Keser Israel New Haven
St. Matthew's Episcopal Church Wilton
Dixwell Avenue Congregational UCC New Haven
Episcopal Church at Yale
First Presbyterian Church of New Haven
First United Church of Christ Milford
OASIS Multi Church Youth Ministry
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church New Canaan



Interfaith Service Day 2019

IWagePeace Interfiath Service Day 2019

The 1st Interfaith Service Day on August 8th in New Haven was a wonderful success. Twenty-two Israeli and Palestinian youth plus 125 local volunteers of all ages brought our size to over 150 in attendance.  We completed seven community work projects. We enjoyed Fire Engine Pizza Truck! Mayor Toni Harp inspired us with her gratitude for our work. Thank you WPKN Radio Something, Channel 8, Channel 12 news, and the New Haven Independent. Thank you everyone who volunteered and supported our efforts. Truly, “We Are All In This Together.”

2019 Interfaith Service Day Program
Program Interfaith Service Day 2019
Interfaith Service Day Program Bruce A. Barrett

Volunteer Service Projects and more - 2019

"We do not need to agree on everything to work together for justice and peace."

© Copyright 2023