THE PASSPORT
to learn more about the many faiths practiced by our neighbors!

CRES offers a 32-page "Interfaith Passport" to encourage better understanding of faiths practiced in the Kansas City area. Visit different faith communities and interfaith events and have your Passport pages endorsed with “visas.” When you have at least one visa on twelve pages for specific faiths and at least five visas for interfaith activities, you will be honored at an awards dinner.

     The Passport has pages for American Indian, Bahá'í, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Sufi, Unitarian Universalist, Wiccan, Zoroastrian, and Other faiths, for Interfaith events, information about the sponsors, the complete text of the 2001 KC area “Gifts of Pluralism” Conference Declaration and reference material.

      A visa is simply a stamp, a sticker, or a hand-written notation with the name of the organization or event, the date, and a signature from the organization. There is no charge for visas.

         The Passport is free but contributions are welcome to support our interfaith work.

  1. How do I get a Passport? Is there a fee?

  2. How do I get visas?

  3. How does my religious group or organization register to provide visas?

  4. Who is registered to provide visas?

  5. What are some examples of interfaith programs?

  6. Describe the Passport as a physical object.

  7. I want to make a comment, offer a suggestion, or ask a question.

  8. Guidebook: Places to visit.

  9. I want to support this program financially. How do I do so?

  10. Co-Sponsors

  11. What did the National Catholic Reporter say about the Passport?
 

Send a stamped (2 ounces), self-addressed envelope to 
CRES, Box  45414,  Kansas City, MO  64171. The Passport is free, but a contribution is welcome.

2. How do I get visas?
     A visa is evidence of attending an event. It is placed on the appropriate Passport page (Buddhist, Sikh, Interfaith, etc.)  A visa can be issued in hand-writing, a rubber stamp, or a printed sticker (1.5 x 2 inches maximum size).
      To be valid, a visa should contain
      1) The name of the organization or event
      2) The date(s)
      3) A signature of someone representing the event or organization.
     Several examples of Passports are shown on the visa sample page, but they do not need to be elaborate. Any faith or interfaith group, even those unfamiliar with the Passport program, can issue visas.

 3. How does my religious group or organization register to provide visas?

 Any group whose faith is represented on the Kansas City Interfaith Council or acts in the spirit of interfaith exchange may register and be listed on this web site by sending CRES an email to office@cres.org.
     While we prefer each group to prepare its own visas (or simply endorse the Passport with the name of the group or event, the date, and a signature, CRES will prepare sticky labels for visas for group or special event use. The charge is $15 for set-up and $1 for each page of visas (30 visas per page). CRES cannot supply rubber stamps, but that is a very good option for groups who wish to honor  their guests with a method often used by governments.

 4. Who is registered to provide visas?

     Any faith or interfaith group may provide a visa, as explained in #3 above. Those who have begun this program are listed on the registration page.

 5. What are some examples of interfaith programs?

     Examples of interfaith activities include the Mosaic Book Club, the annual Harmony Choral Concert, Congregational Partners, Anytown and Unitown, the annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Sunday Family Ritual Meal, Interfaith Council Task Forces, the Hatebuster’s VAN visits and others listed on the web site given above.

6. Describe the Passport as a physical object.

The Passport is a 32-page color booklet, 3.5 x  5 inches, weighing less than one ounce. Each Passport has a registration number on the back cover, and the issuing organization may record the name of  the Passport owner. Inside the front cover is a place for the owner to write his or her identification. Up to four visas may be placed on each of the 20 visa pages. The Passport contains the “Protocol” for using it, a list of Interfaith Council members, the Concluding Declaration from “The Gifts of Pluralism” conference, information about Harmony, NCCJ, and CRES, and a page for notes. The image above is the Passport cover. The logo is from "The Gifts of Pluralism," Kansas City's first interfaith conference, held 2001 Oct 27-28 at Pembroke Hill School Ward Parkway (State Line) campus with 2 50 people from 14 different faith traditions from A to Z -- American Indian to Zoroastrian.

7. I want to make a comment, offer a suggestion, or ask a question.

Please help us clarify and improve this wonderful program to further interfaith understanding by emailing us at staff@cres.org.  Thank you.

8. Here is a PDF Guide with some places to visit.

9. I want to support this program financially. How do I do so?
    Draw your check to "CRES," write "Passport" in the memo line of your check or indicate in a note that the gift is to support the Passport program, and send it to us at Box 45414, Kansas City, MO  64171, or to us at Box 4165, Overland Park, KS  66204. We will send you a receipt with gratitude.

10. CO-SPONSORS

SPONSOR: CRES originated the Passport  when the Interfaith Council was one of its programs. The Council is now independent.
   CO-SPONSORS were KC Harmony and NCCJ, now a merged organization..

11. What did the National Catholic Reporter say about the Passport?

National Catholic Reporter, September 6, 2002

September 11 --  A Year Later:
Interfaith ‘passport’ opens doors to a wider world

By PAT MORRISON
Kansas City

Once the smoke cleared from the tragic events of Sept. 11, many Americans came to realize that there was “collateral damage” far beyond what the nation first imagined. It took various names: racism, suspicion, religious intolerance, ignorance. As in cities around the country, religious leaders in Kansas City, Mo., quickly convened their congregations to provide interfaith services for the community, offering prayer and healing in the wake of the disaster. But they also knew that in the post-9/11 climate they needed to do even more.

Hatred and intolerance -- and a terrible distortion of one religion’s beliefs -- had been a major force behind the death and destruction America had suffered. One effective antidote to the poison, the Kansas City religious community realized, would be a positive outreach to promote better understanding among the area’s faith traditions.

The result of their planning is a tangible aid to achieving interfaith understanding: a “passport” -- more specifically the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Passport -- a 32-page document that’s the same size as the official U.S. document (minus the hefty fee). The catchy understanding-builder was a joint project of several groups active in interfaith and interracial efforts in the community, including the Kansas City Interfaith Council, Mosaic, CRES, Kansas City Harmony, and the Kansas City region of the National Conference for Community and Justice (formerly the National Conference of Christians and Jews).

The person who brought the passport from concept to reality was the Rev. Vern Barnet, a Unitarian Universalist minister who serves as minister-in-residence for CRES and writes a weekly religion column in The Kansas City Star titled “Faiths and Beliefs.”

Barnet, a well-known figure on the Kansas City religious scene, has a lifelong passion for interreligious and ecumenical understanding. “We felt that one of the best ways to get people out of their denominational ‘boxes’ and comfort levels was to provide a resource that would encourage them to visit other faith traditions, to learn more about other religions,” he told NCR. “And from there, tolerance and understanding deepen, and appreciation and respect take root.”

 In addition to knowing little or nothing of religious traditions other than their own, many people have no incentive to visit another faith’s house of worship, Barnet said. Kansas City’s religious leaders felt they needed to build some bridges to get people moving beyond the familiar. For Barnet, the passport concept was a natural one to achieve that.

 “Just as travelers visit other cultures and countries, and come home with a stamped passport as proof of their expanded world, we thought an interfaith passport would do the same thing,” he said. And there are more than a dozen religious “lands” for the interested spiritual traveler in metropolitan Kansas City to visit, from A (American Indian spirituality) to Z (Zoroastrianism). In addition to the better-known religions like Buddhism, Christianity (with a category each for Orthodox, Protestant and Roman Catholic), Hinduism, Islam and Judaism, the passport also includes space to visit other traditions, from Jain and Sikh to Wicca, as well as interfaith activities and programs.

Each of the participating traditions in the metro-politan area has agreed to offer a stamp, a self-stick “visa” or to sign the passport when a person or group visits. There’s also a bit of healthy entrepreneurial spirit at work: Those who accumulate at least one visa on 12 pages for specific faiths and at least five visas for interfaith activities will be honored at an awards dinner and get a discounted rate to attend the city’s 2003 interfaith conference.

The interfaith passport was launched July 1, and Barnet said the first printing of 5,000 is almost sold out. The $2 cost covers just the printing, with a $5 donation asked to cover the booklet and postage if it’s mailed. In addition to orders from individuals, Barnet said several congregations have purchased quantities to give their members, encouraging them to “travel” to other faith “lands.”

Besides the official pages where “visas” can be affixed, the passport contains information on all the faith communities that are members of the Kansas City Interfaith Council and their representatives. Also included is the declaration from the “Gifts of Pluralism” Conference that brought participants from the area’s faith traditions together a year ago and was the genesis for the passport.

“This is a small step, certainly,” Barnet said, “but it’s a practical, tangible way for people to learn more, widen their perspective and embrace tolerance. We’re all journeying together, after all. Isn’t it a wonderful thing if we can widen the circle of our fellow travelers through respect and understanding?”

To learn more about the interfaith passport or to obtain a copy, visit the CRES Web site at www.cres.org/passport . . . .