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FORT COLLINS AREA INTERFAITH COUNCIL

In 1975 Frank Holland, representing Catholic Community Services in Northern Colorado, spearheaded the effort to establish an interfaith body in Fort Collins. He visited various Christian churches in Fort Collins inviting the pastors to unite in an ecumenical effort to accomplish local mission goals that would be impossible for separate individual bodies to achieve.

The primary purposes of INTERFAITH would be:

1. to Identify basic community needs not being adequately addressed by the greater Fort Collins community;
2. to Form an ecumenical collective body, to be known as INTERFAITH uniting various faith communities to study, plan. coordinate, and promote practical solutions to unmet problems in Fort Collins
3. to Secure and involve lay members of participating churches to assure the long-term success of the Interfaith movement. Pastoral involvement would be primari1y a role of supporting the laity.
4. to Begin the Interfaith effort with those interested faith communities, then maintain an
   open invitation to all Fort Collins faith bodies to join these efforts toward these
   purposes.

The first respondents to Frank Holland's calls included Rev. Philip Dunford, Westminster Presbyterian Church; Dr. Donald Lambert, American Baptist Church; Father Tom McCormick, John XXIII University Parish; Rev. Del Paulson, First United Methodist Church; Rev. Robert Nelson, Trinity Lutheran Church; Rev. John Minear, LaPorte Presbyterian Church; and Rev. Robert Gellar, United Campus Ministry. Organizational meetings were held at John XXIII University Center.

Participating pastors, recognizing the shifting nature of their tenure, agreed that the long-term survival of Interfaith would depend upon the involvement of the laity. Each agreed to attempt to secure the participation of at least two members of their faith communities for the continuity of the interfaith mission. This involvement of lay participants proved to be the stroke of genius that really united the movement and launched Interfaith into a solid future, as pastoral leadership continued to evolve through the years. As the church laity caught the vision, they ignited a fire of enthusiasm and faith that propelled the mission into action.

After a few years of trial in attempting to serve a wide variety of community needs, Interfaith reorganized under an umbrella of four basic mission services: food, housing, health and social concerns. Additional para-church social agencies in the community also became active members of the Interfaith Courici1. Through the years new faith communities were established in Fort Collins beyond the Christian church community. These bodies were formally welcomed as members of Interfaith, lending the organization additional strength and ecumenicity to evolve into the successful venture it has become in a new century.

Today this ecumenical body encompasses over thirty religious bodies, with about an equal number of community service groups as affiliated members. Major mission accomplishments in recent years include food for the hungry, assistance with housing provisions for low-income families, health services for needy families and individuals, contact with local and state lawmakers, assistance to families uprooted by the flood in Ft. Collins, and a wide variety of community social concerns that need to be addressed.