NOTE: The Community of Sant’Egidio will receive the JPM Award at a gala ceremony on Monday, June 12.
Click here to purchase tickets, and join us in honoring The Community of Sant’Egidio!
On Monday, June 12, as The Interfaith Center of New York celebrates its twentieth anniversary with a gala at the Tribeca Rooftop, we will also be honoring two individuals and a community for their extraordinary work in the area of facilitating communication, understanding and respect between diverse peoples and communities. This honor is known as the “James Parks Morton” award, named after the Interfaith Center’s founder and chair emeritus. The “JPM” award has previously been bestowed on leaders such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Carl Sagan, President Bill Clinton, and Sister Pat Farrell, among many others.
This year, one recipient of the James Parks Morton award will be The Community of Sant’Egidio, a Roman Catholic religious order and worldwide movement of 60,000 lay people, based on prayer, solidarity, ecumenism, and dialogue. The Community was founded in 1968 after Vatican II and is known for its peacemaking and humanitarian service. Living out the Gospels’ message of love, peace and friendship with the poor, the Community of Sant’Egidio’s track two diplomacy efforts in the 1990s in Mozambique, Algeria and many other sites of conflict have been recognized internationally. The Community works with the homeless, HIV/AIDS survivors, and the mentally disabled in Europe and Central Africa and advocate against human trafficking. Beginning in 2016, the Community of Sant’Egidio, in collaboration with the Federation of Evangelical Churches, the Waldensians, the Methodist Churches and the Italian Government created humanitarian corridors helping over 700 Syrian refuges escape conflict and settle safely in Italy. The Community is an inspiring example of the importance of inter-religious dialogue as intrinsic to the pursuit of peace and love of neighbor.
We talk with Paola Piscitelli, the President of the Community of Sant’Egidio in the U.S., on ICNY’s “Interfaith Matters” podcast series, which will be released soon. Subscribe to our email list so you don’t miss it!
