Celebrating Unity through Faith: UIW Host 2nd Annual Festival of Faiths

On Sunday, Sept. 14, the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW), in collaboration with the Interfaith San Antonio Alliance (ISAA), hosted the 2nd annual Festival of Faiths on the Broadway campus. This unique event welcomed hundreds of peoples to both share and learn about the various faith systems present in the San Antonio community.

Festival of Faiths Director and ISAA Executive Director, Rev. Wyndee Holbrook, coordinated the first Festival of Faiths in 2024 that was hosted on the UIW Broadway campus. Having been inspired by a similar event hosted in her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, Holbrook decided to bring a festival to San Antonio in an effort for the community to expand their world views and to intentionally chose to know their neighbors. She was excited to coordinate the second annual festival with UIW continuing as it's host location.

"In the spirit of welcome, friendship and celebration, we gather today to know each other and to ask respectful questions that help draw us closer," Holbrook shared at the festival's opening ceremony. "In the world, there's a lot of forces working to divide us and tell us that we can't get along, but we know compassion is the antidote to such rhetoric. When people seek to divide, it is by faith we are brought together and remember that we are one."

During the ceremony, attendees were lead in a shared prayer by peoples belonging to faiths including Sikhism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism and Buddhism. By the end of the prayer, attendees collectively affirmed that despite differences in faith, they all belonged to one human family.

The event was a vibrant demonstration of the city's many cultures. Attendees were able to view musical, artistic and dance performances from a variety of performers, and enjoy cuisine from different cultures at the event's food truck alley. Children were also invited to learn more about faith systems as they participated in activities that ignited their artistic expression and curiosity.

Guests gathered in the Student Engagement Center ballroom to listen to the event's keynote speaker Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI, Oblate of Mary Immaculate and theologian. Fr. Rolheiser acknowledges that in a world that has been prone to so much division, we are in a time where unity and connection are being increasingly sought out To him this path towards "oneness" is worth celebrating, and he explored how we as a global community can continue to walk in this path.

Fr. Rolheiser emphasized the idea that rather than people trying to sway each other towards one particular religion, that they should instead encourage each other to grow within their respective faiths. Instead of thinking that one religion is "right" it is better to appreciate all faith systems, and they should nurture each other to become better practitioners of their own respective faiths.

"We all believe that God is ineffable, which means that God is more mystery than known," noted Fr. Rolheiser. "No one faith, no one tradition, no one set of scriptures ever nails it. God is ineffable, which means God can't really be conceived and imagined and put into words adequately … As we get deeper into our own faiths, we're going to get closer to God and then we're going to get closer to each other. We're on that road together."

Other prominent event visitors included Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller, archbishop of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, and San Antonio's 69th Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones. Jones even had the opportunity to introduce the choir from her church, Senyor Santo Niño de Cebu Catholic Church.

"I think it's always important that as we celebrate these kinds of opportunities to not only share our faith, but also share our communities and our traditions," expressed Jones. "We (San Antonio) try our best to put those differences aside in the interest of showing our humanity and our unity as we look to be the best San Antonio we can possibly be. And I think it's events like this that help contribute to that."

Click here to see Catholic Television of San Antonio's (CTSA) coverage of the day's festivities.