President’s Message 2022

Dear NIA Members,  

Both 2020 and 2021 will be remembered as our Covid Years. As an interfaith organization, NIA was  faced with many challenges. Our second annual Youth Conference was held in early January 2020 prior  to the mandated closure of activities, school attendance in person, sports events, and limited contact  except with masking and high antiseptic cleansing. The follow-up service projects from the youth  conference were obviously shelved and the opportunity for youth service to the community was  canceled. We are pleased to announce that we are once again planning to hold our Third Youth  Leadership this coming Fall at UNR on the Saturday prior to Thanksgiving.  

We held no Nevada Prayer Breakfast event during the 2020-2021 time period. The MLK Memorial was  conducted virtually as was the annual Thanksgiving event. A special prayer service was created as a  result of the pandemic crisis and was made available virtually on our Facebook page.  

During the 2020-2021 time period, NIA focused their efforts on developing a workable website. As we  all know, technology is always a work in progress. What is missing is a social media focus. Taken to a  new level, the goal is to promote religion in our community as an emphasis on religious freedom.  Because we believe “faith counts” for the betterment of our community and society at large, we seek to  understand and promote the values we have in common while respecting our differences. This we hope  to improve as we feature the principles of various interfaith holy days and explain their significance in a  portion of the website. Examples would be: Lent, Ash Wednesday , Advent, Ramadas, Passover, Rosh  Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Hanukkah, Juneteenth, and the July 24 Pioneer Day Celebration. 

Having just conducted our first Prayer Breakfast in two years, it is heartwarming to report that 360 were 

in attendance for the event with the theme: In Times Such As This: Humility, Healing, and Humanity.  Showcased were fifteen visionary awards presented to individuals, groups from various church  affiliations, and non-profit organizations that provided heroic humanitarian service during the Covid  shut down. For pictures and more details of the event go to the website section for coverage of this  event. 

We are ready to accept memberships into NIA to support our continued community events: MLK  Holiday Memorial Event, Nevada Prayer Breakfast, Youth Leadership Conference, Two Interfaith  Luncheons, and the Interfaith Thanksgiving Service as well as maintaining our website with its interfaith community calendar, a central place for promoting the member’s individual events and activities. 

It has been my pleasure to service as President for the past five years. Father Chuck Durante has  graciously accepted the position for the next two years. We look forward to his able guidance and  inspiration in leading Nevada Interfaith Association in its ongoing service to the interfaith community. 

Sincerely, 
Pat Meidell