Participating congregations and constituencies
Board of Directors

Mission:

Loudoun Interfaith BRIDGES envisions a compassionate Loudoun community where people of all faiths come together in collective stewardship to value safety, respect, dignity and equity. B.R.I.D.G.E.S. stands for Building Relationships through Interfaith Dialogue for a Good and Equittable Society.

Profile

Loudoun Interfaith BRIDGES has a wonderful history of gathering community towards ends of broadening participation in multicultural diversity and cooperation. Organized in 2006, it has recently been reorganized by hiring an Executive Director, the Rev. Dr. David Milam, with the purpose of having social action as its key. This vision is embedded in its new organizational vision: “Loudoun Interfaith BRIDGES envisions a compassionate Loudoun community where people of all faiths come together in collective stewardship to value safety, respect, dignity and equity.”

Its very diverse seven-member board includes representatives from the Hindu faith, President Puja Khanna; the Sikh faith, Vice President Gurvinder Singh; the Muslim faith, Treasurer Rizwan Jaka; the Jewish faith, Secretary Ray Daffner; the Baha’i Faith, Mercedeh Izadi; and from the Christian faith, Latina, Eva Maria Torres and Rev. Garrett Wolf. Rev. Dr. David Milam, had served sixteen years as the pastor of St. Andrew Presbyterian Church in the Western Loudoun community of Purcellville before starting his role as Executive Director.

In the past two years, BRIDGES has put its new vision into action in innovative, highly visible and much appreciated ways. These include:

• Organizing regional luncheons through out the county to build and bridge relationships between clergy, school principals and elected officials. These eight area luncheons which have collectively attracted xx community leaders to attend, seek to be local and small enough to create personal connections between these three groups of leaders. The hope is that such gatherings build greater social trust, bringing cooperation and collaboration between schools, faith communities and civic leaders. They are going fantastically! The partnership with Loudoun County Public Schools has been welcome.  
• Facilitating interfaith relationships. An Interfaith Comedy Night at the ADAMS Center in 2023 had participants from Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, Baha’i, Protestant, Catholic, Quaker, the Church of Jesus Christ Latter Day Saints, and Unitarians laughing together as an icebreaker so that the dinner that followed found people of different faith traditions joyously open to share about themselves with others. BRIDGES also organized a Picnic at Algonkian Park celebrating our shared community with music from the Sikh community. Rev. Milam and Board members are present in many community events including Iftar Dinners, Yom Kippur services, cultural festivals, anti-hate trainings, Juneteenth celebrations and the like.
• BRIDGES also organizes the community in moments of crisis. When hate graffiti was scrawled on an empty store in South Riding, BRIDGES organized a Rally to show Loudoun as a place of welcoming and affirming values. Featuring Board of Supervisors’ Chair, Phyllis Randall, former Lieutenant Governor, Justin Fairfax, Sheriff Michael Chapman, NAACP President, Michelle Thomas and several other faith and civic leaders, the event gathered 200 people at the shopping center parking lot on a cold, December night. The event was covered by three of the four DC major network TV outlets as well as print media, who captured the true character of Loudoun as a diverse community that inclusively seeks the welfare of all peoples.
• Along these lines, BRIDGES was asked to show organized support for the Equity Resolution presented to the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors at their January 2023 meeting. The dozen BRIDGES speakers effectively changed the tone of previous such public comment times, by having clergy and faith leaders publicly support diversity, equity and inclusion values.
• As social advocates, BRIDGES has teamed with New Virginia Majority and the Community Foundation to support efforts to help residents gain affordable housing.
• When there are tensions between faith communities, BRIDGES seeks to stay engaged with all parties, while facilitating discussion and the pursuit of peace. In the past year, BRIDGES has lamented the horrendous violence suffered by innocent Israeli citizens, while also grieving deeply with Palestinians of Muslim and Christian faiths in the war in Gaza that followed. Our desire is to be a place where conversations may be invited so that justice and peace might be a realized hope. Towards that end, a group of rabbis and imams were convened for discussion on October 15 and a forum for local religious leaders was held on December 3, 2023. BRIDGES continues to seek engagement between those who are deeply connected to the great hurt and violence that continue in the Holy Land of Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths.     
• Embodying its social advocacy mission, a series of vigils held at the Loudoun County School District offices after the school shooting at Uvalde. The vigils gave an opportunity for faith communities and Loudoun residents to lament gun violence at schools, faith communities, in places of business, entertainment and shopping centers . The vigils attracted the participation of public officials from local to national levels. It enabled BRIDGES then to form partnerships with Moms Demand Action and other groups so that it helped organize a Loudoun County March for Our Lives. On December 14 it marked the tenth anniversary of the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary featuring Fred Gutenburg, asking the Loudoun County Sheriff for greater accountability in enforcing “Red Flag” laws. The three “gun violence” events averaged well over 200 people.

Loudoun Interfaith BRIDGES seeks not only to maintain these efforts, but to strengthen its ties with a broad range of faith communities, open to finding how these together might find common and peaceful, generous and trust-building purposes.