A Journey Full Circle: Welcoming Steve Spreitzer to IFLC

Back to the Future!

The pathway to beginning my service to advance the mission of the Interfaith Leadership Council began back in the mid 1980s when I attended my first meeting of the Michigan Department of Corrections Chaplains Advisory Council as a guest of Msgr. Richard Groshek of the Diocese of Lansing. I would go on, several years later, to serve as the representative of the seven Roman Catholic dioceses of the state of Michigan. Drawn to bring the power of the Church into the Criminal Justice system, including correctional facilities, I began to meet the religious other. I first met Rabbi Michael Rascoe who served the Jewish community of Grand Rapids and Imam Elam Muhammed based in Lansing as a member of the Muslim Society of America, and including other branches of the Christan faith, they led me to find their practice of their faith a powerful complement to my desire to know the Creator. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was hooked, seeking to know more, to become spiritually whole. In June of 1988, I finished my MSW from Michigan State University looking at the role of the faith
community in the Criminal Justice system and going on to develop the Office of Criminal Justice Ministry for the Diocese of Lansing.

In 1990, I came to the Archdiocese of Detroit to develop their Office of Criminal Justice Ministry, spending the next five plus years getting to know people of many different faiths called to the area correctional facilities including Mahmoud Omais, of blessed memory and Rabbi David Nelson, then the leader of Congregation Beth Shalom in Oak Park.

In November of 1994, Detroit Archbishop Adam Maida was elevated to Cardinal. A celebration by Detroit religious, civic and business leaders was held at the Detroit Institute of Arts in early 1995. During this event Cardinal Maida called for “a new mosaic of hope” challenging the communities’ leadership to come together, uniting as people of faith to cross racial, geographic and age boundaries to serve those in need. The project would be named Partners in Service, and I was appointed the program’s first director, going on to spend time meeting, among others, the religious leaders from throughout the region, proceeding to become more deeply committed to service with the religious other.

When my time of launching this program found me returned to my work in the Department of Christian Service with the Archdiocese, I realized I was not ready to stop the “oh so meaningful” work with people of other faith traditions. I had met the interfaith icon from the National Conference for Christians and Jews (NCCJ), also known as the Roundtable, the late Rev. Dr. Oscar Ice of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and his successor Rev. Dr. Carl Buxo of the Anglican communion. This left me with two role models who served me well when interviewed with NCCJ leader the Rev. Dr. Daniel H. Krichbaum, who was affiliated with the United Methodist Church. In 1996, I was hired by Dan, of blessed memory, to serve as the Roundtable’s interfaith coordinator, serving on a part-time basis for the next seven years while also working full-time with the Archdiocese of Detroit in a range of leadership positions with the Department of Christian Service.

A significant event took place on September 12th of 2001 when the Interfaith Partners was formed on what Ghalib “Victor” Begg would call “the first day of the new calendar.” This move led to the then seventy years of Roundtable interfaith work collapsing into the new venture, bringing a range of interfaith heroes (name penned by our dear brother Rev. Dan Buttry of the American Baptist Church) to the Advisory Board.

In August of 2003, the Archdiocese eliminated the Department of Christian Service and I, along with a number of colleagues were let go. By then I had come to know Bob Bruttell, who had served on the Interfaith Scholar Colloquy and participated in a number of Roundtable social and racial justice projects. Bob proved most helpful as I discerned next steps beyond serving part time with the Roundtable, which wasn’t enough income to support my wife Mary and are three children. By January of 2004, I was elevated to full time status with the Roundtable, including leading the Interfaith Partners and engaging in fund raising leading Walk as One, later name Walk Together Michigan.

In 2008, I was tapped to lead a statewide grant the Roundtable received from the Ford Foundation leading me to step away from the Interfaith Partners, who eventually parted ways with the Roundtable, becoming the Interfaith Leadership Council. Over the next 16 years, I continued with the Roundtable, becoming program director and in 2014, the President and CEO. I retired on August 31st of this past year as the (co) Executive Director in Residence and serving a succession plan leading to Dr. Yusef Bunchy Sharkur being named Executive Director of the now named Michigan Roundtable for Just Communities.

As I was preparing to move on from the Roundtable, I realized I wanted to keep engaging, finding ways to simply help people come to know and care about the “other.” Once again, while meeting with Bob Bruttell, of the Roman Catholic community, we talked about how we would continue answering the question Bob had been posing during the years we continued to meet and collaborate. This question was, “How are we going to live together?” Those conversations with Bob led me to be selected by the IFLC leadership in June of 2025 to begin working part-time as a community organizer, which has brought me hope for our communities and a deep sense of satisfaction.

As I reflect on this journey which began back in the mid 1980s, I realize the many relationships and learnings about organizing were made possible by a loving wife and countless donors to the Diocese of Lansing, the Archdiocese of Detroit, NCCJ/Roundtable and now the Interfaith Leadership Council. Even during the period from 2008 to this June, I continued to honor those donors by never refusing to take a call for interfaith related connections and counsel, keeping me connected to an area of “ministry” which was also quite meaningful to me.

One project which drew me to easily see myself becoming a part of IFLC is Bridging to Belonging, which IFLC President Greg Geiger with the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints had been speaking about under the guise of the “Values” project, and together with other IFLC leaders and Greg’s brilliant daughter Rachel Cannon, became Bridging to Belonging. This project is already creating unity in our communities with the Farmington/Farmington Hills Bridging group receiving national recognition. Bridging efforts are beginning in Livonia and Warren, with future efforts also being seeded in other communities.

Beyond Bridging, I will be working to help communities organize Community and Faith Associations along with expanding IFLC’s Journeys program, which I worked with when it was with the Roundtable. This program was originally known as the Religious Diversity Journeys and was founded for seventh grade students, as were a number of other projects, by interfaith shero Gail Katz of the Jewish community. Beyond this I will help with growing IFLC’s work in Detroit and Pontiac and answering calls that come to IFLC as was done recently when we worked to bring volunteers to the Latter- day Saints Dearborn ward to provide support and security in their first public facing event since the tragic killings at their congregation in Grand Blanc.

I am looking forward to working with IFLC executive director Raman Singh of the Sikh community and our board of directors in reconnecting with folks I have met over the past forty years while making new friendships as we answer Bob’s question about how we are going to live together.

See you soon…

Steve Spreitzer