Welcome to the Marin Interfaith Council

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Many years ago, a rabbinic colleague shared a teaching I have returned to ever since. In the Book of Exodus, and again in daily Jewish prayer, God is named as “the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Why repeat the word God three times? Because, the teaching goes, each had to find God for themself.

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I love this teaching because it holds two truths together. We live by one another’s gifts: the care, trust, and shared labor across generations that bring us food, water, shelter, play, and breath. And each of us also walks a path only we can walk, tending our own ground, body, heart, soul, or light so that we can show up in service to others. So too, across history and around the world, each community has found its own collective ways to the sacred, giving rise to nearly as many traditions as there are cultures. Like the many watersheds that feed our bay, together they form a living ecology of human wisdom. They spark creativity, knit connections, and nurture resilience, helping us grow in belonging, safety, and dignity.

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Welcome. You may come rooted in a religious tradition, as a spiritual seeker, carrying ancestral or cultural ways of knowing, guided by life-giving values and ethical commitments, holding no religious belief at all, or simply trying to make sense of these times. There is a place for you here.

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Since 1982, MIC has gathered Marin’s diverse communities to celebrate the sacred, advocate justice, and build loving community. I am grateful to my predecessors, Rev. Lynn Oldham Robinett, Rev. Scott Quinn, and Rev. Carol Hovis, and to all who have carried this work before me. I step into the role of Executive Director with a deep sense of invitation: to create together the next season in the life of MIC.

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In this season, two yearnings echo in many of the conversations I am having with folks. The first is a yearning for shared wisdom and practice: for spaces to share our rituals, prayers, and contemplative ways, where we grow more deeply into our own traditions as we learn to honor the traditions of others. The second is a yearning for wisdom-seeking voices in public life. In a truly pluralistic society, our traditions can open spaces for moral imagination, reparative listening, and lasting relationships across difference, where we discern together what matters most for the communities we share.

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We will meet these desires as we always have, at the table: sharing food, sharing wisdom, and collaborating to meet one another’s needs. We will build bridges with honesty, courage, curiosity, and empathy. We will practice solidarity, celebrating the gifts of every person and community while making room for the repair and healing that can transform cycles of hate, hurt, and harm. And we will learn and act together across generations, cultivating the wisdom and creativity our time of earth and climate crisis asks of us.

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This work belongs to all of us, and it begins with relationships. Come to a gathering, share a meal, bring a question, offer your gifts, or tell us what your community needs. Whatever you bring, you will find people here ready to listen and to create with you.

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With gratitude and hope,

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Reuben Shank
Executive Director, Marin Interfaith Council