South Coast Interfaith Council

The SOUTH COAST INTERFAITH COUNCIL (SCIC) has been serving Long Beach and surrounding area by creating communities of compassion among people of different faiths & cultures through SERVICE, EDUCATION & CELEBRATION for over 60 years! Now, more than ever, we need your support to continue this invaluable work. Although the pandemic has caused us to cancel all our physical gatherings - including fundraisers - we continue to serve the community. Since March, we have held over 35 online programs bringing thousands of diverse people together virtually by providing support & offering hope in these challenging times.

Our SERVICE PROGRAMS identifies shared values & brings youth and adults from different backgrounds together to act upon them through programs like Feeding the Homeless, 9/11 Interfaith Build day with Habitat for Humanity, CROP Hunger Walks to fight hunger, Humanitarian Day, Interfaith Thanksgiving Service, Season of Non-Violence, Interfaith Prayer Vigils & Beach Clean Ups.

Our EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS provides the community opportunities to engage in dialogue with one another, thus clarifying doubts, misconceptions & misunderstandings about other faiths/ cultures and further contributing towards one's own development and growth through programs like the Interfaith Cafes, Interfaith Sunday Services, Environmental Priorities Network, Jewish-Muslim Youth Alliance, Religion 101 Monthly Programs, Justice & Peace Committee, Interfaith Youth Leadership Initiative, SCIC Summer Movie Nights, Women's Interfaith Seder & other community forums & services.

Our CELEBRATION PROGRAMS foster compassion, dignity, fairness and hospitality by establishing meaningful friendships between people of different faiths & cultures through programs like Dr. Martin Luther King Interfaith Intercultural Celebration, Festival of Music Benefit Concert, Interfaith Unity Awards Dinner, SCIC Annual Assembly, Interfaith Unity Bike-a-thon, Gala by the Sea, Interfaith World Peace Pilgrimage, Interfaith Hennah Party, Interfaith Christmas Program, Peace Sunday & other religious/ spiritual/ cultural gatherings.

We also proudly collaborate with many other community and national organizations such as the California Community of Equality & Justice (CCEJ), Archdiocese of Los Angeles and many others on programs/ initiatives that promote peace and understanding among diverse people.

The SCIC is honored to model to the rest of the world that people of different faiths and cultures CAN peacefully live together by affirming our diverse religious and cultural particularities and - at the same time - contributing to pluralism by creating a common shared human identity based on mutual understanding, respect and love of one another. Thank you for your support!

Testimonials

"I have had the privilege of working with the SCIC for some twenty years now! Monitoring its transformation from an Ecumenical to an Interfaith Council, I was afforded the opportunity of installing its first slate of Interfaith Officers. Over the years I have attended several of its Annual Meetings and Award's Dinners - among others I was honored with its "Interfaith Unity Award" in 2006. SCIC provides a wonderful forum for men and women of diverse Religious Traditions & Cultures to learn about and from each other as well as to work together for the common good - one only has to witness the annual Interfaith Cafes and the current SCIC endeavor with Habitat for Humanity to be provided ample evidence of this, to say nothing of the tremendous efforts SCIC puts into caring for the physical needs of others. The South Coast region of Los Angeles County would be bereft should SCIC not exist, and I, for one, look forward to continuing to support its many forms of Interfaith encounter for many years to come." - Right Rev. Alexei Smith, Ecumenical and Interreligious Officer, Archdiocese of Los Angeles

"I was directly involved with the work of the SCIC and I can say without a doubt that it is one of the most important and exciting organizations with which I have ever been affiliated. In a time when global religious tensions seem to be escalating, SCIC is tearing down the boundaries that separate people of different faiths and replacing those boundaries with bridges of mutual understanding and interfaith action and service. I think the SCIC is on the cutting edge of the kind of interfaith education, service and advocacy that will be the best pathway into peace in our increasingly diverse world." - Rev. Jerald Stinson, Senior Minister Emeritus, First Congregational Church of Long Beach (UCC)

"SCIC is an oasis of fellowship in faith. WhenTemple Israel was targeted for picketing by a hate group, we turned to SCIC to help organize a counter-voice of love and unity through the vehicle of a multi-faith Shabbat morning service. The result was a glorious choir of voices acknowledging sacred unity through human diversity...