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Building Bridges: IFLC Bus Tours Return to Detroit
January 20, 2025
A member of the Board of Directors of the Interfaith Leadership Council of Metropolitan Detroit mentioned a couple of years ago to me how after the pandemic, a lot of educational bus tours that once were offered in the city of Detroit had ceased taking place or were significantly diminished in their frequency. He wondered if this might be a vacuum that the IFLC might be able to fill, particularly with regard to visits to religious sites in the region. The Education Committee discussed this in 2023 and formed a subcommittee to develop, research, and coordinate these bus tours. The first took place in October 2023, with tours of two historic churches and one historic synagogue in Detroit.
I am pleased to report that two bus tours were planned and held in 2024, one centered on stops on the Underground Railroad (First Congregational Church and Second Baptist Church) related to religious communities in May. The second for the year, in late September, took participants on an “Eastern Odyssey” to the Midwest Buddhist Meditation Center in Warren, Michigan, and the Bharatiya (Hindu) Temple in Troy, Michigan. The hospitality, sharing of information, and overall experience of these traditions and spaces of devotion were powerful and meaningful. What struck me most, though, most recently during the Eastern Odyssey Tour, was the time during the meal when people who had not been a part of interfaith events got to know one another and grow in their appreciation of interfaith connection and the benefit of growth, learning, and interfaith friendships to healing divisions among us and building a stronger and more resilient society. While breaking bread together is certainly important in my own Christian tradition, I see it as such an integral activity engaged by many faith traditions and communities. It brings us together and demonstrates a commitment to forming and sustaining relationships. These tours have truly made such opportunities possible.
