Gathering a group of people together is a lot easier when you offer everyone breakfast, and that’s what the City of Fishers did Tuesday morning.  Local leaders from many faith communities gathered at City Hall to begin forming the Fishers Multi-Faith Community for Compassion.

Those attending represented a wide range of religious beliefs, including Muslim, Sikh, Jewish and Christian.  They all discussed issues that can be tackled together, where all have a common interest.  Some of those concerns included mental health and substance abuse.

Mayor Scott Fadness told those gathered that many mayors choose to shy away from engaging with local religious leaders citing separation of church and state, but Fadness has chosen to tap into the local religious community for initiatives such as his mental health project.

The mayor says he looks at bringing-in faith leaders as a way to build Fishers as a community.  People move to Fishers for a variety of reason, according to Fadness, such as the quality of the schools or just a desire to leave the core of a large city.  But once here, the challenge is to bring those suburban residents into the community of Fishers.

Muzaffar Ahmad, a Muslim originally from Pakistan, now a resident of Fishers, is forming the multi-faith group.  You can learn more in a podcast interview I recorded with Mr. Ahmad at this link.

Fishers Multi-Faith Community for Compassion has established a Facebook page, which can be accessed at this link.