Our Mission

We are committed to an inclusive democratic process based upon the mutual responsibility of public officials, public institutions, and the general public. It requires honesty and civility through open discussion of issues and full participation open to all citizens.

We work towards a public good that offers dignity and wholeness to all people. This includes a quality public education, a sustainable environment, a living wage, comprehensive health care, adequate housing, and a voice for people of faith in the political arena that respects the First Amendment.

As a growing and diverse interfaith community, we bring a constructive and healing witness to public and political life in the Greater Rochester community. The Interfaith Alliance of Rochester is one of many local alliances in a national coalition of people of faith.

As a more specific description of how TIAR is currently carrying out our mission, following is a letter from our President:

Shalom, TIAR members,

I hope you and those close to you are doing well.

This continues to be a challenging year. We miss our friends and family lost to the pandemic. We miss the physical contact with our friends and family. The subtlety of a touch on the shoulder or elbow bump; the handshakes and hugs, are all missed. Even our nuanced points of conversations— a wink, smirk, or raised lip are lost to us over Zoom.

How do we continue our work of creating the world we want to live in and leave for others? How do we live our values and work to promote fairness and justice for all?

At TIAR, as we are still pondering in-person meetings, we are continuing to make all the individual decisions on our lives. The connections with others, that always helped us make our important decisions, are sometimes hard to reconstruct. So how can TIAR help reconstruct these connections? How can TIAR provide the framework to reconnect us so we can share the vital information and opinions which can enable us to act as informed, citizens and social justice leaders?

TIAR can make two important contributions. Firstly, we have an amazing group of TIAR leaders who can keep all of us up-to-date on the environment, the Black Lives Matter movement, the Poor People’s Campaign, Police Accountability Board, voting rights, health legislation and access, the homeless community, immigration, and other topics. TIAR can provide our members the information and knowledge of the local opportunities through emails.

Secondly our meetings can provide sessions on specific topics of interest. This is a list of the topics of board meetings and speakers for the last year:

2020

September- Voter Registration and Distance Voting Opportunities and Procedures: Judy Schwartz from the Rochester Voter Alliance

October- Rev. Lane Campbell, First Universalist Church.

November- Environmental issues-

December- Government (church and state), especially in the light of the pandemic and the appeals to the state and federal courts.

2021

January- Connection with National Interfaith Alliance group

February- Rochester and the Police.

March- “Social Dilemma”, discussion of documentary movie on the effect of the Internet companies and their destructive influence. Dr. William Elwell (presenter)

April- TIAR Committee Reports committee spokespeople

May- Police Accountability Board - Conor Dwyer Reynolds (presenter)

June- Complexity of immediate issues- a form off intersectionality.

Oct. What is Critical Race Theory? Roberta Davis (presenter)

Dec. Americans United for the Separation of Church & State and how it is affecting vaccination adherence and protest. Dr. Robert Goldstein (presenter)

UPCOMING

2022 Feb. Environmental issues and TIAR’s relationship with local environmental groups. Climate Forum February 17th Rochester evictions. Richard Codding and others

If you have suggestions of other topics and/or speakers that will help us understand our community’s needs, please contact me.

By working with many other local groups, we can not just provide needed information but also allows us to join forces in our pursuit for a better community and world. Let us make this next year one in which we daily demonstrate our values and our connection to others. Let us continue learning and sharing our thoughts and abilities to make our world the one we wish it to be. Let us emphasize that we have faith that we can make a difference.

I hope to greet you at future TIAR meetings.

Shalom, Barry A. Swan

President, The Interfaith Alliance of Rochester (TIAR)

baswan@aol.com. 585-329-3305

Meet Our President

Barry A. Swan became the president of TIAR in October, 2021 in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic after being a member of the TIAR board for many years. Barry is a retired Rochester City School District anti-Social Studies Teacher and has continued as a Rochester Teachers Association union representative for over 40 years. He is the Madrikh (clergy/leader) of Beth Haskalah, the Rochester Society for Humanistic Judaism. Barry is the secretary of the Rochester group of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State. He has been a volunteer at both Planned Parenthood and the soup kitchen at Salem United Church of Christ for over 25 years.

Meet Our Board

Current Vice President Roberta Davis has been involved in social justice work for a number of years. In the early years she worked on equity in education, helped plan and facilitate retreats and trainings with Moving Beyond Racism, and participated in actions with Pax Christi. More currently she is involved with the Poor People’s Campaign and serves on its Care Team, is Secretary on the RocACTS Board, participates on the Police Accountability Board Alliance, and represents TIAR on the New York Immigration Coalition. As a person of mixed heritage, she identifies as indigenous racially and spiritually.

Secretary Richard Codding was born in Rochester NY and attended Catholic grammar School and Edison Tech graduating in 1965. He attended SUC Brockport and entered the Joint College /Peace Corp Training Program in 1967. He completed his student teaching at DC Teachers College and worked for the Desegregation Institute. Rich started teaching in 1969 at The Rochester City School District. Then worked in Adult Education At The Singer Graflex/ OVR Job training and placement program, taught at BOCES 11 and Brockport Central and during summers at The Brockport College" Escuela De Noche" Migrant Education Program using his Spanish language and Math skills. After retiring in 2002 from Brockport Central, Richard has participated in various Social Justice/Climate organizations including, ROC/ ACTS, Metro Justice Education Committee, Climate Accelerator, Citizens Climate Lobby, and TIAR.

Our History

The Interfaith Alliance of Rochester (TIAR) was established in 1996.  TIAR is considered a chapter of the Interfaith Alliance of New York State, a not for profit 501 (c) 4 corporation, which covers TIAR.

The (National) Interfaith Alliance (TIA) was established in 1991.  Its first Executive Director was Rev. Welton Gaddy, a Baptist minister, and its highest profile supporting founder was Walter Cronkite.  The motivation for its formation was the need to have a faith-based organization that represented the breadth of the religious community and not just its more conservative counterparts such as the Moral Majority.  While TIA and TIAR welcome members from all parts of the political and religious spectrum, we want to demonstrate that people of faith do not have a single opinion on the political issues of the day, including the “hot button” social issues.

TIAR was organized at a meeting called by Larry Witmer to which about 25-30 local activists in the religious community were invited.  Participants in developing the mission and by-laws for TIAR included, among others, Larry, Paul Gongloff, Neil Jaschik, Melanie May, Peter Peters, and Paul Womack. Their initial concern was the lack of civility in political discourse and TIAR’s first programs were designed to explore major issues, presenting both sides, and focusing on the issue and not personalities.  The only ground rule – since modified – was that we would not get into issues such as abortion and gay marriage since our emphasis should be on principles that unite us and not divide us.

The structure and process proposed for TIAR was based upon a large supporting membership led by a smaller Board of Directors.  The entire membership would meet twice a year, once to select 2-3 issues to focus on for the year and once to elect its Board and officers as well as conduct organizational business.  The idea was that we would study a limited number of issues in depth, describe the arguments on the various sides of the issues, and – if appropriate – formulate our own position.  Programming would consist of educating the public on our findings and modeling civil debate.

This approach never was successful due to the inability of the membership to agree on just a limited number of issues of concern and eventually resulted in by-laws changes resulting in the current structure of a continuously evolving Board-led program with the support of various interest area groups made up of general members working in tandem with other local organizations focused on the same concerns.  We also support, as much as possible, the programs of National TIA.  This is the current process and focus of TIAR.

National Interfaith Alliance Website