This past year we celebrated the 24th Festival of Faiths with Sacred Cosmos: Faith & Science, looking at the “and” where faith AND science overlap and interact.

As with many festivals, our 23rd was topical and timely in the wake of the Women's March and the #mettoo movement.

In 2017, our 22nd annual Festival of Faiths focussed on a topic at the heart of our mission and a value that's a priority in the city we call home: compassion.

In 2016, our 21st Festival of Faiths focused on Sacred Wisdom: Pathways to Nonviolence. Festival activities included Enso calligraphy with Zen Master Dae Gak of the Furnace Mountain Retreat Center and a sand mandala created by the monks of the Drepung Gomang Monastery, and concluded with a compassion walk.

Our 2015 Festival of Faiths, Sacred Journeys, went back to our roots with a deep look at the life and legacy of Thomas Merton. The Center for Interfaith Relations sits at the corner of Fourth and Walnut streets in Louisville, the exact spot where Merton had the epiphany that we are “all walking around shining like the sun.”

The 2014 Festival of Faiths, “Sacred Earth, Sacred Self,” sought healing of self and society through a faith–based look at the earth. An interfaith prayer service opened the festival with a call to re-awaken to a world of beauty and abundance.

The 2013 Festival of Faiths, Sacred Silence: Pathway to Compassion, redirected attention from the self to the other, creating a pathway to compassion. Programming was carefully curated to reflect the 2013 Festival’s dedication to highlighting the historic 1968 meeting of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Thomas Merton.