ChI Community:
An Interfaith Experience
OUR INTENTION is to join together as a community — in connection with the Divine Source of All who is known by many names and who is beyond all names — for healing and transforming ourselves and the world.
OUR MISSION is to create a just world that honors the sacred connection of all. We are cultivating intentional sacred community for mutual support, learning, and innovating at the cutting edge of interfaith practice.
If you’d like to partner with us in that mission, here are some simple next steps:
__________
The Chaplaincy Institute Seminary gratefully acknowledges that we hold our classes on the Lisjan/Ohlone land. We honor their generosity and welcoming spirit. Sadly, their land was taken from them by our federal government and they are now working diligently to buy it back. To learn about how you can help the Lisjan/Ohlone reclaim the land of their ancestors, visit http://sogoreate-landtrust.com/ or join the Facebook group “West Berkeley Shellmound”.
__________
“There are many paths to the top of the mountain, but the view is always the same.” (Chinese Proverb)
“My religion is kindness.” (H.H. the Dalai Lama)
“There are no partitions between ourselves and the Infinite.” (Emerson)
“Regardless of whether we realize it or not, we are always in the midst of the Way. Or, more strictly speaking, we are nothing but the Way itself.” (Taizan Maezumi)
“The destination of all is to God.” (The Qur’an, Surah 35:18)
We welcome everyone — no matter who you are, who you love, where you’ve been, or what you believe.
The ChI Interfaith Community includes alumni, ordained ministers, spiritual directors, staff, faculty, students, and anyone who seeks to understand, connect, grow, and create a just world that honors the sacred connection of all. We gather in-person and online, near and far.
Our community was founded in 1999 by clergy and other leaders who had a vision of promoting peace and understanding through training interfaith clergy to serve the spiritual needs of a changing world. Now a spiritual community recognized by professional organizations and the U.S. Government, the ChI Interfaith Community is authorized to bestow Ordination and Graduation for qualified Chaplaincy Institute seminarians.
THE ChI INTERFAITH COMMUNITY SEEKS TO:
- Facilitate the creation of a just world that honors the sacred connection of all.
Honor the diversity and the unity of all beings, non-beings, cultures, and faith traditions, while embracing our own respective heritages.
- Serve joyfully in ritualizing the cycles of life, including weddings and memorials, spiritual direction, and many other avenues.
- Support each other through challenging times of living and dying.
OUR INTERFAITH CHAPLAINS, COMMUNITY MINISTERS & SPIRITUAL DIRECTORS:
- Provide compassionate, respectful spiritual care to people of all faiths, as well as people of no faith. Find a provider near you!
- Support finding meaning within life, crisis, suffering, and loss, as well as discerning your relationship to Source.
- Recognize the Sacred everywhere: in prisons, hospitals and hospices, corporations, houses of worship, nature, and the streets.
ORDINATION
As a recognized 501c3 organization, The ChI Interfaith Community is the ordaining body of The Chaplaincy Institute. The ChI Interfaith Community ordains clergy and provides ongoing personal and professional support as they serve.
The ChI Interfaith Community is recognized by:
- The Association of Professional Chaplains (APC)
Association for Clinical Pastoral Education (ACPE)
- College of Pastoral Supervision and Psychotherapy (CPSP)
- Department of Defense (DOD) in collaboration with the International Council of Community Churches (ICCC)
CLERGY IN GOOD STANDING (CIGS)
Our ordained interfaith clergy receive and maintain “Good Standing” status through The ChI Interfaith Community, which endorses annual Clergy in Good Standing (CIGS) for professional functioning as celebrants, ministers, and chaplains, as well as Good Standing status for Spiritual Directors.
The Chaplaincy Institute’s Clergy in Good Standing are listed at our website on our PROVIDER network page.
Our ordained clergy who maintain good standing annually are also recognized by the U.S. Government and may claim clergy tax status for income tax reporting.
CERTIFICATES OF COMPLETION
In addition to ordaining interfaith clergy, the ChI Interfaith Community recognizes and celebrates ChI students who complete an Interfaith Chaplaincy Certificate, or the Interfaith Spiritual Direction Program.
CHI-TRAINED SPIRITUAL DIRECTORS
The ChI Interfaith Community affirms Spiritual Directors and provides ongoing personal and professional support. Our interfaith Spiritual Directors can receive and maintain “Good Standing” status for ethical functioning as they serve, and are also listed in our PROVIDER network. For more information about Clergy in Good Standing, contact our Community Minister.
ChI SATELLITE GROUPS
In regions of the United States where there is a cluster of ChI alums, the ChI Interfaith Community gathers in small groups from time to time. We call these “Satellites”. We are also in the early stages of cultivating online groups for sharing, learning, and peer support for our growing community. When our community gathers — whether in-person or online — we create sacred, respectful space for (and with) each other as fellow travelers on the soul road. To inquire if there is a ChI Satellite near you, or to help organize and catalyze us as an online community of practice, contact our Community Minister.