CRLMC on Sanctuary

The Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago is proud to partner with Greater Chicago Broadcast Ministries to produce each year four episodes of Sanctuary, a 30-minute public interest program broadcast on Sunday mornings. The Council selects topics and invites guests to discuss issues related to faith communities in Chicago for February, May, August, and November.

August 2024 | Faith-based Service Programs for Young Adults

Many faith communities sponsor programs where people realize their faith commitments through community service. This episode focuses on Amate House where fellows live out the tenets of Service, Community, Faith, Social Justice, and Stewardship by serving a year alongside and learning from community leaders who are solving social justice issues in under-resourced communities of Chicago.

Mr. Kevin O'Gorman, former fellow at Amate House and currently Assistant Archivist at the Dominicans Province of St. Albert the Great

May 2024 | American Islamic College

The American Islamic College is an inclusive, non-denominational liberal arts college located in Chicago that is one of just two independent Muslim colleges in America accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. This episode highlights what this pioneering institution offers the Muslim community and the entire region.

Dr. Timothy J. Gianotti, President & Acting Provost
Ms. Romana Manzoor, Director of Accreditation & Institutional Research | Interfaith Program Coordinator

February 2024 | The Black Church

The Black Church has been a foundation for generations of African Americans. This episode of Sanctuary focuses on the nature, history, achievements, and future of this remarkable institution.

Dr. Brad Braxton, President, Chicago Theological Seminary; Founding Senior Pastor, The Open Church, Baltimore, Maryland
Reverend Michael Eaddy, Chairman, General Council of Pastors and Elders, Church of God in Christ; First Administrative Assistant to Bishop Ocie Booker, Prelate of First Jurisdiction, Illinois, Church of God in Christ; Pastor, People's Church of the Harvest Church of God in Christ, Chicago

November 2023 | Protecting Faith Communities

Faith communities have reasonable concerns that they might be targeted because of what they believe, where they and their community live, or simply because of who they are. This episode of Sanctuary focuses on some of these challenges and discusses different resources available to faith communities to help them protect their places of worship, schools, and members.

Mr. Charles DuShane, Protective Security Advisor, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, U.S.
Department of Homeland Security
Father Jerry Boland, Pastor, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, Glenview

August 2023 | Parliament of the World's Religions

The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago featured the Parliament of the World's Religions, an historic meeting of religious representatives from across the globe that marked the beginning of the modern interfaith movement. This episode of Sanctuary focuses on that historic meeting and the 2023 Convening of the Parliament in Chicago.

Rev. Stephen Avino, Executive Director, Parliament of the World's Religions
Swami Ishatmananda, President and Swami-in-Charge, Vivekananda Vedanta Society of Chicago

May 2023 | Stewards of Physical Space

Faith communities are stewards of the physical world: custodians of historic and beautiful landmark buildings, and improvers of the environment both locally and around the world. This episode of Sanctuary features representatives from two wonderful organizations that strengthen congregations in their roles as stewards of our natural and built environment.

Rev. Veronica Johnson, Outreach Director, Faith in Place
Sarah Jones, Associate Director of Community Engagement, Partners for Sacred Places
Emily Sajdak, Senior Project Manager, Partners for Sacred Places

February 2023 | Chaplains

Chaplains serve private and public institutions across our nation.
These spiritual leaders can be found at colleges and universities and with police departments, hospitals, and prisons. Who are chaplains? What do they do and whom do they serve? This episode of Sanctuary focuses on these questions with two national leaders in chaplaincy.

Dr. David Lichter, retired Executive Director, National Association of Catholic Chaplains & part-time professor at Loyola University Chicago's Institute of Pastoral Studies
Rabbi Joseph S. Ozarowski, Rabbinic Counselor and Chaplain, JCFS Chicago & President of Neshama: Association of Jewish Chaplains (NAJC)

November 2022| Old Friends and New

Metropolitan Chicago is home to many different faith communities. Some have their origins on this continent, and some were brought here by immigrants. Each has its own history and traditions, and many have venerable hierarchies of leadership. This episode of Sanctuary introduces a new faith leader in Chicago and pays tribute to a great champion of interfaith dialogue who died earlier this year.

His Grace the Right Rev. Daniel, Bishop of Chicago & the Midwest, Diocese of the Midwest, Orthodox Church in America
The Very Rev. Thomas A. Baima, S.T.D., Vicar for Ecumenical & Interreligious Affairs, Archdiocese of Chicago (in memoriam)

August 2022| The Future of Seminaries

Metropolitan Chicago is a great center of seminaries and theological schools in the United States. Like so many institutions, seminaries are reexamining what they do today and how they do it to fulfill their mission in the future. This episode of Sanctuary looks at the future of seminaries and the role these remarkable institutions play in their own faith traditions and in our larger community.

David Crawford, President, McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago
Javier Viera, President, Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary, Evanston

May 2022| May Celebrations

Every month, our neighbors and friends in different faith communities celebrate observances that are central to our religious experience. This episode of Sanctuary highlights the important observances for two faith communities here in Chicago and around the world that occur this year in May: Eid-al-Fitr in the Muslim community, and Maidyozarem Gahambar in the Zoroastrian community.

Imam Tariq El-Amin, Masjid Al-Taqwa, Chicago
Mr. Rohinton Rivetna, Zoroastrian Association of Metropolitan Chicago

February 2022| Faith Communities and COVID-19 Vaccinations

In Fall 2021, CRLMC launched an interdenominational effort with congregations across Chicago to deliver vaccinations to 1,000 people. Prism Health Lab administers vaccinations at each congregation, and the effort is part of the Chicagoland Vaccine Partnership which is mobilizing community members to ensure equitable vaccine access.
This episode of Sanctuary focuses on why, as a matter of faith, congregations have committed to vaccinating their members and the communities they serve.

Pastor Danny Lopez, New Life Community Church - East Humboldt Park
Rev. Sean Ramsey, Bethany Evangelical Lutheran Church

November 2021 | Faith Communities and Policing

"The Chicago Police Department, as part of, and empowered by, the community, is committed to protect the lives, property, and rights of all people, to maintain order, and to enforce the law impartially." This is the first sentence of the CPD mission statement. Policing fairly and respectfully in such a diverse setting can be challenging, particularly in matters of religious belief, dress, and practice.
This episode of Sanctuary explores new and exciting CPD initiatives to strengthen communication and interactions with Chicago's many faith communities.

Mr. Michael Milstein, Deputy Director of Community Policing, Chicago Police Department
Officer Michael Carroll, Religious Community Outreach Liaison, Chicago Police Department

August 2021 | Mental Health and Communities of Faith

Events and disruptions of the past year have left our nation in a sustained state of anxiety and have taken a toll on the mental wellbeing of all of us, affecting our day-to-day living and our ability to relate to other people.
This episode of Sanctuary explores how different faith communities support the mental health of their members and their leaders in the face of everyday and extraordinary events.

Rev. Dr. Barbara A. Wilson, Director of Collaboration and Community Partnerships for the Presbytery of Chicago
Rev. Brian E. Smith, Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Chicago Theological Seminary

May 2021 | Coping with Grief

This spring, our nation passed the one-year anniversaries of the pandemic and of the death of George Floyd. Here in Chicago and across the country, our time has been marked by profound grief.

This episode of Sanctuary focuses on how faith traditions respond to grief: what faith traditions teach, how faith can help us cope personally and provide us guidance in supporting our neighbors, families, friends, and community.

Bishop Yehiel Curry, Bishop of the Metropolitan Chicago Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Ms. Shayda Safapour of the Chicago Baha'i community

February 2021 | Pastors4PCOR

This episode of Sanctuary focuses on Pastors4PCOR, a unique training program for faith-based community facilitators that partner with the academic and medical communities to identify needs and assets in their communities and to promote participation in health research in underserved communities of color in Chicago and elsewhere.

Bishop Simon Gordon, Senior Pastor, Triedstone Full Gospel Baptist Church; and Bishop, Midwest Region, Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship International
Dr. Paris Davis, Executive Director, Pastors4PCOR; and Executive Director, Total Resource Community Development Organization

2020

November 2020 | Marking Time

For more than two decades, the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago has published an annual InterFaith Calendar that lists and explains religious observances for 17 different faith communities. This episode of Sanctuary explores how faith communities mark time, and what celebrations and observances can teach us about our friends, neighbors, and colleagues.

Dr. Daniel Olsen, Director, Office of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, Archdiocese of Chicago; and
Mr. Abdullah Mitchell, Executive Director, Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago

August 2020 | Reopening Illinois Houses of Worship

In May 2020, Governor JB Pritzker introduced Restore Illinois, a plan to protect public health and safely reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic. This episode of Sanctuary features a discussion of the choices, adjustments, and experiences of different faith communities as they start to resume in-person worship.

The Most Rev. Ronald A. Hicks, formerly the Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago and Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Chicago and now the Bishop of the Diocese of Joliet;
Mr. Morgan Dubiel, President of the Wilmette State of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

May 2020 | Faith Communities and COVID-19

Like the rest of the world, Chicago is now confronting the global COVID-19 pandemic, and the religious communities of Metropolitan Chicago have made dramatic changes. This episode of Sanctuary focuses on what steps faith communities have made to slow the spread of the disease, how these changes have affected faith institutions and the people they serve, and what can people of faith do to help their neighbors during this crisis.

Dr. Allison Arwady, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health
The Rev. Vance T. Henry, Chief of Faith Engagement, Office of the Mayor for the City of Chicago

February 2020 | Faith on Campus

Chicago is home to outstanding universities. The thousands of students who study here come from around the world and reflect the religious diversity of our country. This episode of Sanctuary features three adults who are working hard to meet the spiritual needs of students on Chicago campuses.

Chaplain Tahera Ahmad, Associate Chaplain and Director of Interfaith Engagement at Northwestern University
Rabbi Anna Levin Rosen, Executive Director of the University of Chicago Hillel
Amanda Thompson, Director of Catholic Campus Ministry at DePaul University

2019

November 2019 | Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is one of the most popular American holidays, marked by families and friends getting together for a festive meal and fellowship. This episode focuses on what it means to be thankful and how that belief finds expression in some of the religious communities of greater Chicago.

Rabbi Shoshana Conover, Associate Rabbi at Temple Sholom in Chicago
Ms. Georgia Gavaris, Director of the Greek Orthodox Philoptochos Feed the Hungry Program
Ms. Asayo Horibe, President of the Buddhist Council of the Midwest

August 2019 | Homelessness in Metropolitan Chicago

Homelessness is both a personal and a social calamity. It affects tens of thousands of people right here in Chicago and thousands more across Illinois. And there are misperceptions about the homeless population. For example, many people who are homeless have jobs. Many have a college education. And far too many of them are children. This episode focuses on the people who experience homelessness and to help.

Doug Schenkelberg, Executive Director, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless

May 2019 | Reducing Gun Violence

The Rev. Jackie Marquez, Chaplain at Northwestern University, leads a discussion about efforts by the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago to reduce gun violence.

The Rev. Dr. B. Herbert Martin, Sr., CRLMC President
Nisan Chavkin, CRLMC Executive Director

February 2019 | Hope in Troubled Times

The Rev. Jackie Marquez, Chaplain at Northwestern University, talks with Chicago area religious leaders about how various faith communities bring us hope for the future in our troubled times.

Mr. G. Abdullah Mitchell, Executive Director of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago
The Rev. Thomas Capo, Representative of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association, Chicago Chapter