WANTED: Coats for Interfaith Coat Drive

An Interfaith Litany of Embrace, Mourning and Thanksgiving:
In Our Time of Fear and Anxiety

(Free Coat Drive)

Friday November 27, 2020 at 1:00 PM on the New Haven Green
The Greater New Haven Interfaith Coalition

If all the lights in the world grew dim, it will not hurt you. For the light in your heart still shines bright

-Muslim Sufi poet, Rumi

Statement of Purpose:

Our faith traditions proclaim the unity of all life and our mutual interdependence. We are friends, neighbors, spouses, siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and children who feel daily the stress imposed upon us all by the COVID-19 pandemic. We mourn the loss of loved ones, friends and neighbors and strangers alike due to this health crisis and we are coping with our fear of its continuing threat to life. This health crisis and the impact of racism and other forms of violence and social injustice has separated us from one another in many ways. Some of us feel that we are alone in meeting the challenges of living in our environment of anxiety and fear.

As members of faith communities in Greater New Haven, we, the Greater New Haven Interfaith Coalition are inviting you to join in forming a community of mutual care and compassion. This is a nonpartisan non-denominational event, and you need not identify with any religious or faith community to participate. All are welcome to gather and offer each other support, to remember those whom we have lost and to express gratitude, even amid our sorrows and concerns.

These are very anxious times. However, there is a unity amongst us that we must not forget even as we grieve the loss of loved ones, former ways of living and face the future. We affirm that there is more that unites us than divides us. We recognize that reaching out to and standing with one another is an important way of creating light at a time when many people are feeling that they are alone in the darkness of our time.

Please join us on Friday, November 27, 2020 at 1:00 PM on the New Haven Green. Public health safety protocols will be in place. You must wear a mask and maintain appropriate social distance. Although we will be physically separated, we can still experience and maintain our social connection as a human community and draw strength from being with one another.

Free coats will be available to those in need for the winter season. Bring a coat (or several) to leave at our coat table; take a coat if you need one. Coats should be clean and in gently used condition, and coats for children and youth are especially welcome!Coats can be dropped off in advance on Sunday, Nov. 22 at Trinity on the Green (230 Temple Street), between 1pm and 4pm. Questions about the coat drive? Contact Rev. Heidi Thorsen (hthorsen@trinitynewhaven.org). For non-coat drive questions/more information please contact Rabbi Herbert Brockman at: cmirabbi@cmihamden.org or Student Intern <Maria.Hackett@yale.edu>

**In-person event subject to change; coats will still be collected regardless