Community Outreach Programs

The CRA works with scholars and experts in religion and architecture to develop community outreach and education programs. Programs include:

• Tours of Religious Structures: Chicago is a city rich in architecture and home to a variety of extraordinary religious structures. In 2006, the CRA implemented a program of walking tours of religious structures in Chicago for the general public and student groups. On October 28, 2007, the CRA will partner with Common Ground to present a tour reflecting the three Abrahamic faiths through North Shore Congregation Israel, the Islamic Cultural Center of Greater Chicago, and St. Sava Russian Orthodox Church.
  
  
• Educational Partnerships: The CRA is working with educational institutions such as the Illinois Institute of Technology and McCormick Seminary to create opportunities for internships and to provide supplemental programming where appropriate. Loyola University will partner with the CRA in the youth outreach program, described below.
  
  
• Youth Outreach: The CRA is coordinating a multigenerational interfaith oral history project in Edgewater, one of Chicago’s most religiously diverse neighborhoods. Participating youth will be trained in oral history collection and documentation techniques to explore the richly varied faith traditions of their own community. In-depth tours of neighborhood religious structures will be incorporated into the project. Youth will be recruited through the Edgewater Clergy Rabbi Association, and other houses of worship and schools within the Edgewater community. The material will be collected and developed into a presentation, which participants will take back to the neighborhood, sharing their discoveries at participating houses of worship and community centers. A permanent record will be created of the living history collected through this project.
  
  
• Participation in Interfaith Events: the CRA provides programming to major events and symposia that focus on interfaith issues and education. Plans are currently under way to participate in the 2009 Council for a Parliament of World Religions, and the CRA actively seeks partnerships with other Chicago institutions for which interfaith understanding is a priority, such as Common Ground and the Interfaith Youth Core.
  
  
• Public Lectures: the CRA presents lectures about religious architecture at public venues such as Rotary meetings, special luncheon series, and educational or religious institutions.

The study of religious architecture provides an invaluable tool toward creating a vital interfaith dialogue. The CRA celebrates and explores the many ways in which religious architecture engages us in experiencing each faith and its practices, and applies this knowledge to the promotion of interfaith dialogue and education.