Interfaith Story Circle has connected faiths for a quarter-century

In 1993, three women got together for the very first meeting of the Interfaith Story Circle (IFSC). They came to share stories about their respective faiths and to connect with others through those stories.

“Looking back, it was just a mustard seed,” said Gertrude Johnson, founder of the Interfaith Story Circle. “I had no idea where it was going.”

Twenty-five years later, Mrs. Johnson’s small storytelling gathering has grown into a multifaceted organization. WithOurVoice, Inc., is an incorporated not-for-profit that oversees the IFSC and the Children at The Well, an award-winning storytelling program for children and young adults that Mrs. Johnson co-founded.

Despite those changes, IFSC members are doing the same thing today that they were attempting at their first meeting 25 years ago: telling stories and building understanding.

“We’re people who believe in the power of story,” said Mrs. Johnson, who attends St. Luke’s parish in Schenectady. “The story has power to bring people of different cultures and lifestyles to understand each other; to appreciate and learn.”

Sharing our stories

She recalled a Chinese fable told by one member about a man who teaches his town that disasters can be disguised as blessings, and vice versa.

By hearing someone share such a story from a particular faith tradition, she said, “we get a glimpse of each other” and “discover what we have in common.”

Through these discoveries, Mrs. Johnson hopes people learn to be more open and understanding to those with different faiths or spiritual beliefs.
“That’s how we learn from each other: We meet our friend for coffee and we hear about each other’s lives,” she said. “It’s natural” to tell stories.

The IFSC came about while Mrs. Johnson was teaching at Notre Dame-Bishop Gibbons School in Schenectady. Simultaneously, she had just begun working on her master’s degree in systematic theology at St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry in Albany, and one of her courses sparked an interest in storytelling.

Mrs. Johnson began weaving storytelling into her lesson plans at ND-BG. She saw right away the difference it made in capturing her students’ attention, so she was inspired to expand her storytelling outside the classroom.

Keep it going

At the start, she said, the group was mostly Catholics and other Christians. To spread word about the IFSC, she began visiting local mosques and synagogues, and attendance snowballed.

In 2005, Mrs. Johnson received a $5,000 grant from the National Storytelling Network to help start a youth interfaith storytelling program, Children at the Well. WithOurVoice was created to oversee both the youth and adult storytelling programs.

Paula Weiss is the former director of Children at the Well, now focusing on writing and editing “Our Stories Connect,” a guidebook on storytelling for Children at the Well.

Now retired, Mrs. Johnson focuses on the IFSC. That group meets once a month from September to June, and invites anyone to come and share a story or just listen. Each story circle gathering has a theme and begins with a guest storyteller before opening the floor to others in attendance.

Marni Gillard, a parishioner of St. Kateri Tekakwitha Church in Schenectady, has been a part of the IFSC since its inception. It’s “no question” that the group has deepened her faith, she said: “It’s just so fun to reach across those lines, especially during these times when nobody is reaching out to other cultures” and faith communities.

Participation

Anne Snyder of Blessed Sacrament parish in Albany has been coming to the storytelling group for around 20 years. She remembered her very first IFSC meeting: The theme of the night was “stories of forgiveness.”

Mrs. Snyder planned on just listening, but, by the end of the night, she was telling stories, too.

“What happened to me happens to many people,” she told The Evangelist. “They wind up telling stories” despite thinking they wouldn’t participate.

Some of the stories shared at IFSC gatherings are personal; others are fables from one’s faith. Mrs. Snyder recalled telling a personal story of seeing her parents praying beside their bed, and how much that impacted her faith.

Mrs. Gillard, for her part, said her favorite story was about a world where people’s hearts were visible in their hands, and the lesson of what it truly meant to have the “best heart.”

“Much of the sharing that takes place here is on the heart level,” Mrs. Johnson noted.

Make connections

The circle’s purpose is to share experiences, not preaching to advocate particular beliefs. Mrs. Johnson said that sharing stories allows listeners “to walk a mile” in the teller’s shoes.

Storytelling circles like the IFSC are “terribly important” right now “because of the way it connects us,” she said.

“From stories, you get a glimpse of how others have suffered,” said Mrs. Johnson. “You have no idea from reading headlines [in the news]. Stories break down the misconceptions about people.”

(The IFSC’s 25th anniversary celebration will be held May 9, 7-9 p.m., at The College of Saint Rose’s Hubbard Interfaith Sanctuary in Albany. For more information, contact Anne Snyder at 518-869-5247 or [email protected].)