Before 9/11, Sheila Sonnenschein lived comfortably among mostly Jewish people. A meeting with a Muslim woman following that tragic event not quite 12 years ago grew into a strong friendship and eventually opened a variety of new doors for Sonnenschein. One has been the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council, an organization she has been leading since the beginning of this year.

Sonnenschein is officially GKCIC’s convener and will serve in that position until the last day of 2014. She explained that as its convener, she acts as a facilitator who tries to bring people together in some kind of consensus.

“But in essence, it is like being president,” Sonnenschein said.

GKCIC bills itself as “Building the most welcoming community for all people.” Its website says the organization is “growing a sustainable, pervasive culture of knowledge, respect, appreciation and trust amongst people of all faiths and religious traditions in the greater Kansas City community.”

Sonnenschein said GKCIC tries to educate people around the Kansas City community about different religions. It does so through a variety of programs “where everyone is invited to come and learn.”

“Educating people about different faiths and cultures helps break down stereotypes. It also prevents stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination,” Sonnenschein said.

GKCIC programs include its annual Tables of Faiths luncheon, Food and Thought Dinners, two book clubs, a monthly discussion group called Vital Conversations, a speakers bureau and its upcoming Midsummer’s Light (for more information, see box). Details regarding GKCIC programs are on its website, kcinterfaith.org.

GKCIC was established in 1989 as the Kansas City Interfaith Council (KCIFC) by the Rev. Vern Barnet. The council became its own non-profit organization in 2005. The following 15 faiths are officially a part of the organization: American Indian Spirituality, Baha’i Faith, Buddhism, Christian-Protestant, Christian-Orthodox, Christian-Roman Catholicism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Paganism, Sikhism, Sufism, Unitarian Universalism, Vedanta and Zoroastrianism.

Sonnenschein, a member of Congregation Beth Shalom, is the first Jewish person to be the group’s convener. Other Jewish people who serve as an adviser or director include Gayle Krigel and Susan Choucroun.

Advisers or directors either officially represent one of the 15 religions or are members at large. In 2005, Sonnenschein’s friend Mahnaz Shabbir, who was an at-large member, invited Sonnenschein to serve GKCIC as her alternate.

“At-large members are people who are a friend to interfaith and they don’t necessarily represent a religion. So even though Mahnaz is Muslim, she asked me to be her alternate because she and I have a lot of the same kind of thinking toward being open to others and working with people of different faiths,” Sonnenschein explained.

Sonnenschein immediately enjoyed her association with GKCIC.

“It just spoke to me. I really enjoyed meeting all these new people of all these different backgrounds and it really inspired me to understand others. I grew up in a Conservative Jewish home. I went to the Hebrew Academy through seventh grade. I was very involved in my Jewish heritage. I really didn’t have that many non-Jewish friends. That has now changed,” said Sonnenschein.

She eventually became active in the organization, serving as an at-large member, co-convener and planning programs such as the Tables of Faith luncheon and the predecessor of Midsummer’s Light, Winter’s Light. She said the upcoming Midsummer’s Light will feature stories, music and dance of different faiths and cultures, including the Tikvah Dancers.

“This is a way to educate people about different faiths and cultures that they may not have heard about or know much about,” she said.

Getting together with members of the GKCIC is always a learning experience, Sonnenschein said, even at business meetings. Those are held at 6 p.m. on the second Monday of the month at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church and are open to the public.

“For example as we talked about Midsummer’s Light we learned that the dancers needed to be dressed modestly,” Sonnenschein said, noting that some types of costumes are offensive to some religious groups.

Over the years Sonnenschein said members of GKCIC have learned to better understand what is acceptable, and sometimes not acceptable, to members of certain religions and have tried hard to balance those things. One of those is when to schedule programs.

“The other directors have learned over the years that the Jewish community would prefer not to have programs on the Jewish Sabbath. So we try not to schedule things from Friday night to Saturday night if at all possible. That is one thing people of other religions have learned about Judaism,” she said.

“Until there was a Jewish presence on the council the directors didn’t really understand that and now they do, and it’s wonderful,” she added.

But, holding programs on Sundays isn’t ideal for some other religions, she pointed out.

“Programs held on a Sunday might preclude people who are Christian who go to church on a Sunday afternoon from attending. We are trying to balance it out,” Sonnenschein said.

Other than its advisers and members at large, GKCIC doesn’t have any official membership roster, although it has 2,300 people on its mailing list. But that’s about to change, Sonnenschein said, as the organization is preparing to launch a membership program where they can have official members.

In the meantime, one thing she wants people to be sure to understand about GKCIC is that members don’t try to convert one another to their particular religions and the group isn’t about interfaith marriage.

“In this context when we say interfaith, to me it means multi-faith in a sense of getting to know others because they are our neighbors. In the Interfaith Council there is no attempt at converting people to another religion. In actuality we are there to appreciate and respect other’s religions and just learn.

“What I have found, and what many others have found, is that when we learn about other religions we actually become more committed and more understanding of our own religion,” she said.

Midsummer’s Light

The Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council presents Midsummer’s Light: an afternoon of interfaith music, dance and storytelling, from 2 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday, June 23, at the Kansas City Library, Plaza Branch. A reception follows the program, which is free and open to the public.

Syed Shabbir, 41 Action News reporter, will again emcee. In addition, he and his uncle, Shadman Shabbir, will perform traditional Middle Eastern music on the harmonium and violin.

The program also features crystal singing bowls and Sanskrit chants by Jeri Birdsall, Chinese Lion dancers and drummers, Gospel songs by Bryan Austin, Tikvah Israeli Dancers, “A Story of ‘Abdu’l-Baha,” by dramatist Joyce Stohr, a scene from the play “Harriet Tubman” by Shirley Johnson, a tribute to Swami Vivekananda by Hindu youth, and African drumming by Bird Fleming and youth members of the Traditional Music Society.

The event is co-sponsored by the Kansas City Public Library and Cultural Crossroads.