Blessings to all! And thank you for being among our 1,800 KOINONIA Quarterly Newsletter subscribers and for your interest and engagement in Ecumenical and Multi-Faith relations. 

By way of introduction: I am an ordained Roman Catholic priest, fully professed member of the Missionary Society of Saint Paul the Apostle since 1993. I have served as an associate pastor in parishes in Los Angeles, and Minneapolis-Saint Paul. Since 2004 I have worked primarily as a Paulist Missionary, visiting Catholic parishes  in the USA– some in sister relationships with local Episcopal and Methodist churches –a week at a time, offering missions and retreats on a variety of topics: The Gospel of Luke (lukelive.com), Resurrection Faith (and What It Means to Us on a Daily Basis), and the Story of Saint Paul the Apostle.

I have infused all my presentations with the Paulist Fathers’ charism of respect for peoples of all faith traditions (and those with a secular outlook) in this great American experiment. With religious pluralism among our many family members, friends, and co-workers in this 21^st century, I continually encourage my retreat recipients to engage in interreligious dialogue, offering tools for respectful listening and appreciation of similarities and differences. 

As of this writing, I am a member of the Board for Religions for Peace, USA and a member of CADEIO — Catholic Association of Diocesan Ecumenical and Interreligious Officers.

Starting off the New Year in my new role, I have a particularly important request: I beg your participation in an Eight Question Survey to help me coordinate the Koinonia constituency for future dialogue and activities. For example, would you be interested in 

• an annual or bi-annual Zoom meeting on a topic of interest? 
• meeting via Zoom or in person with Koinonia subscribers in your area? (Currently our email data base has only emails, no names, denomination / faith tradition or addresses specified.) 

I urge all our readers to complete the Survey as soon as possible so I may make plans and suggestions for the new year. You may access the Survey here.

• Be sure to read in this January Koinonia issue, a reflection by our former Paulist Ecumenical and Interfaith Office Director, Paulist Father Tom Ryan. Tom offers a brief thanksgiving for spearheading 20 years of the Koinonia newsletter and celebrating his engagement in this office for over 35 years!
• There is also a poignant reflection from Sikh Satpal Singh, member of Religions for Peace, USA, from Buffalo, NY, on how he came to appreciate American guarantee of Religious Liberty and about his encounter with Pope Francis, previously published in the Washington Post (on washingtonpost.com and in PDF format).
• And please check in with my newly begun Work-In-Progress List of Accessible Books and Resources to introduce people to each of our faith traditions and denominations. My Introduction to that list explains my goals for those pages and invites your participation. 

Thank you so much for reading! Feel free to write me at [email protected] or phone me at 212-265-3209 extension 253 to news about share ideas and programs enlivening you! I am particularly interested in what you and your congregations may be doing to commemorate WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY – January 18 to 25, 2022. 

I look forward to hearing from you.