IYA December 2023 Newsletter

December 2023

INTERFAITH INSIDER The Interfaith Youth Alliance Newsletter

Interfaith Thanksgiving Service on 11/12 at Congregation B’nai Tzedek

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: IYA Youth Board - Robert McPhie, Leah Green, and Rain Ozbey

PLEASE SHARE YOUR REASONS FOR SUPPORTING YOUTH INTERFAITH WORK:

Student Reflections: Hearts and Hands and Thanksgiving Service December Holidays and Upcoming Events Sponsorship opportunity

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Hearts and Hands Service Day We are so grateful for the opportunity to participate in the 22nd annual Hearts and Hands Service Day on Saturday November 18. Interfaith Youth Alliance, along with 400 community members participated in over 15 service projects. We are grateful to the Nguyen, Kaur, McPhie, Mann-Saechao, Taylor, and Reddy Families for all the donations that allowed us to assembled 225 hygiene kits to be given to our houseless neighbors through Sunday Supper at St. Paul’s in Tustin and Seva Pantry in Santa Ana. Grateful to UCI students, Rotary Club students, and others that helped us color and write cards to go in each hygiene package

December 2023

Student Reflection: Hearts and Hands was such a fun and rewarding experience! There were numerous projects to dive into.

Interfaith Youth Alliance OC organized its annual Hygiene Kits for the homeless, and we ended up creating over 200 kits in total. These will be donated to shelters and through the Seva Collective Food Pantry. I loved being part of the Assembly Line to put the kits together, and I also enjoyed coloring and creating cute affirmation notes for each kit. Overall, Hearts and Hands was a truly enjoyable experience!

Rabina Kaur, IYA Treasurer

Student Reflection: Thanksgiving Interfaith Service Interfaith work brings out the best in us, and interfaith learning even more so. I got the opportunity to attend the service and looked forward to it with great excitement. I was beyond impressed by the show of community.

I learned how gratitude is expressed across faith traditions and also got the chance to taste multicultural food. I felt so thankful for IYA for giving me a chance to feel the incredible sense of love and strength that was conveyed through this spectacular event.

Leah Green, IYA Co-Secretary The Interfaith Thanksgiving service had two parts. First, we listened to songs performed by members of many different faiths. And then we broke bread together, which is the part that hit me the most. I usually break bread at church where we believe the broken bread represents the broken body of Christ, and I break bread around my family dinner table. But to break bread with people from many different families and many different faiths was a new and powerful experience of coming together. It was delicious and filling, and full of good will.

Robert McPhie, IYA Co-Chair December 2023

Meet Our Team The Adult Board

Brenda Davis (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) President, IYA Aruna Hatti (Hindu) Lawyer Gagandeep Kaur Mann-Saechao (Sikh) Assistant Director, Youth & Education Programs, Groundswell Jessica Spence Moss, PhD (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Executive Director, IYA Essraa Nawar (Islam) Assistant Dean for Library DEI Initiatives and Development Leatherby Libraries, Chapman University Ann Nguyen (Catholic) Community Services Coordinator, City of Stanton Adam Overton (Jewish) Faith-Rooted Organizer, Clergy & Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE) Jasjit Singh, MD (Sikh) Pediatric Infectious Diseases Physician Sahib Ajit Singh (Sikh) Entrepreneur

Why Interfaith: What Students are Saying...

The benefit of interfaith action in all three areas is huge. In society, interfaith action solves issues of foreign relations. Creating safety between nations starts with understanding the individuals. If leaders took time (as many do and others should) to discuss matters of faith diplomatically amongst themselves and showed the world the simplicity & depth of the conversations… I truly believe we would gain so much insight.

Interfaith allows me to express my religious identity, while also learning and experiencing life from the point of view of other faiths, that I may not have known much about before.

Interfaith has also provided to be an outlet for social justice, guided by a diverse community of individuals.

100% of proceeds support our efforts to help youth strengthen faith, learn about religious others, build leadership skills, and serve their communities.

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I attend Pacifica Christian High School. It has been fascinating to learn about mainstream Christianity, as well as a lot about the Hebrew Bible this past year in school.

My faith community teaches that all people are children of God, and that God commands us to love and serve all of His children, not just the members of our church. As we treat each other as brothers and sisters, despite the very real differences in our beliefs and cultures, we make society better by building good will. Good will protects people from being ostracized and otherized, left out, taken advantage of, lonely, and on the outside of things. It helps people feel loved, understood, valued, appreciated, and included in God's family.

Upcoming Events: 12/7 City of Stanton: Holidays Around the World 12/10 House of Worship Tour: Brea Congregational Church & the Congregational Church of Fullerton (2-4pm) 300 E Imperial Hwy, Brea, CA 92821 1/14/2024 TBD (2-4pm) 2/11/2024 TBD (2-4pm) 3/3/2024 18th Faith Forum & Festival (1-6pm) Jain Center of Southern California 8072 Commonwealth Ave, Buena Park

December Holidays 3 (Christianity) First day of Advent 6-15 (Judaism) Hanukkah 8 (Buddhism) Bodhi (Awakening) Day 8 (Catholicism) Feast of the Immaculate Conception 22 December Solstice (Wicca) Yule (Shinto) Tohji-taisiai 25 (Christianity) Christmas 26 Kwanzaa