CRES History and Programs

CRES is the oldest continuing interfaith organization in the Kansas City area, founded in 1982. Gathering friends of various faiths, in 1985 we  began an annual family Thanksgiving Sunday interfaith ritual meal — and by 1989 with these friends we were able to build what is now the Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council. Beginning in 1999 leaders in the arts, government, the media, and religion were recognized with yearly awards.
     In 2009, following the 25th Thanksgiving Sunday observance, we asked other groups we had created and supported to assume many of our activities so our focus could be sharpened to teaching, writing, and consultation.
     CRES continues to provide a website, www.cres.org, which announces programs initiated by other groups involving CRES and provides an archive of photos, texts, and videos about many CRES achievements, including 
    » the historic 2001 Gifts of Pluralism conference and its outcomes
    » the day-long observance of the first anniversary of 9/11
    » the 2002 national CBS-TV half-hour special on CRES work here
    » the 2007 first national Interfaith Academies CRES facilitated held here 
    » instruction on how to do interfaith work and other resources
    » the 947 columns Barnet wrote for The Kansas City Star — and later articles for other publications
    » back issues of the monthly 12-page color CRES Many Paths magazine with its critical essays and history, and 
    » many other essential aids to interfaith work in the Kansas City area.
    A CHRONOLOGICAL LIST APPEARS HERE.

CRES Vision, Mission, Values, Motto

VISION — CRES envisions the greater Kansas City area as a model community for the world
     » where interfaith relationships are honored as a way of deepening one’s own tradition  and spirituality, and 
     » where the wisdom of the many religions successfully addresses the environmental,  personal, and social crises of our often fragmented, desacralized world.

MISSION — To honor the sacred  wherever it appears and to support its appearance everywhere, especially by promoting understanding among peoples of all faiths in greater Kansas City and beyond.

VALUES — Our guiding question is “What is sacred — what is so important that my life depends upon it, that I would die for it — and what may I do to understand, honor and share it?”
     » Kinship – We are kin to all persons; we seek inclusiveness in relationships. 
     » Mutual understanding – We understand ourselves best when we learn to understand others and their experiences. 
     » Mutual respect – We recognize that others have a right to their own faiths and we have a deep respect for others’ traditions. 
     » Mutual development – Genuine interfaith encounter leads to mutual purification and the deepening of our own traditions. 
     » Mutual assistance – We need each others’ insights to respond to the crises of secularism. 

The CRES MOTTO —
     » Primal Faiths: restored with nature 
     »Asian Faiths: the self made whole 
    » Monotheistic Faiths: community in covenant 
     » Liberation Movements: finding the sacred afresh 
Click on the image below for a full-scale view of our summary.

CRES Founder

The Reverend Vern Barnet, DMn, completed his doctoral work at the University of Chicago and the Meadville-Lombard Theological School in 1970. He served parishes in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Kansas. 
     Honored by Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, and other religious and civic groups, he has taught world religions at area universities and seminaries. He is a frequent lecturer for various groups, and has appeared on local and   national radio and television.
     In 1994 The Kansas City Star asked him to write a weekly column; for eighteen years he covered local events and concerns from a multi-faith perspective. His articles, reviews, and poems have appeared in the National Catholic    Reporter, The Journal of the Liberal Ministry, the publications of several denominations, and in various literary magazines. His work is cited in dozens of books and articles. 
     After international interfaith work, and after serving on the planning committee for the first conference of the North American Interfaith Network in 1988, he organized the Kansas City Interfaith Council in 1989 with 13 faiths, A to Z — American Indian to Zoroastrian — as a program of CRES, where he is now minister emeritus. 
     Following 9/11 he led the region’s unprecedented “Gifts of Pluralism” conference which fostered interfaith initiatives featured on a half-hour CBS-TV special. Among his many civic activities, he chaired the Jackson County government’s Diversity Task Force that studied the effects of 9/11 on people of faith in the 5-county KC area.
     His interfaith work led to Kansas City’s selection as the site for the nation’s first “Interfaith Academies” sponsored by Harvard University’s Pluralism Project, Religions for Peace-USA, and other groups. Ellie Pierce, the Pluralism Project’s principal researcher, said— 

At the Pluralism Project, we consider Kansas City to be truly at the forefront of interfaith relations. This is — in no small part — due to the tireless efforts of Vern Barnet, whose work and writings have been an inspiration to all of us at the Pluralism Project.

Recent Books

      Barnet was one of the four editors for the 740-page reference book, The Essential Guide to Religious Traditions and Spirituality for Health Care Providers (Radcliffe, London and New York, 2013). An introductory essay outlines the CRES research project charted on the other side of this brochure.
     Thanks for Noticing: The Interpretation of Desire (2015) draws on Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, and many other faiths to explore love, sex, and spirituality. In 154 sonnets, notes, and other text, this ground-breaking book offers free on-line resources (YouTube videos, interviews, a theological concordance, etc).

CRES Team

ALL VOLUNTER STAFF 
The Reverend Vern Barnet, DMn, minister emeritus
The Reverend David E Nelson, DMin, senior assoc minister
Margaretha K Finefrock, CRES chief learning officer
The Reverend Josef Walker, community chaplain
Ed Chasteen, PhD, amity shaman
Geneva Blackmer, intern

FOR BOARD MEMBERS and other information:
CRES TEAM

#Chronology
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CHRONOLOGY OF MILESTONES IN THE HISTORY OF CRES
 

      1982 CRES founding, mission, motto, etc ***
      1984 CRES Many Paths (earlier, The Release) ***
      1984 Japan
      1985 CRES annual Thgvg dinners ***
      1986 India
      1986 "Islam and the Muslim World" with International Relations Council
      1996 Mayor's Task Force on Race Relations with Religion/Spirtuality Cluster
      1987 Japan, Korea
      1988 NAIN conference, steering committee
      1989 Joint workshop with Press Club
      1989 Christian Jewish Muslim Dialogue Group
      1989 KC Harmony Declaration including non-Abrahamic faiths
      1989 Interfaith Council, a program of CRES  ***
      1990 KCTA "graduation"
      1994-2012 KC Star weekly column  ***
      1994 United Way study
      1994 Spain (Andulusia)
      1996 Mayor's Task Force on Race Relations
      1997 Egypt, Jordan
      1999 Umbrella proposal
      2001 Sept 11 press conference
      2001 Sept 16 Public Interfaith Observance
      2001 Science and Religion conference: Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, Berkeley
      2001 Oct (26)-27-28 Gifts of Pluralism Conference ***
      2002 May 24 Vita Conversations begin
      2002 Sept 10 9/11 Jackson County Diversity Task Force  ***
      2002 Sept 11 City-Wide Day-long observance  ***
      2002 CBS-TV national half-hour special  ***
      2004 CBTS
      2005 Turkey
      2005 CRES spins off IFC
      subsequent CRES workshops, teaching, writing, awards, programs, appearances, etc
      2005 Mayors Prayer Breakfast controversy
      2005 Nov 10 First Table of Faiths luncheon
      2006 KCT award
      2007 May SPST
      2007 KCPT Talk Back Live (Steve Rose)
      2007 June 13-27 Natl Interfaith Academies ***
      2013 The Essential Guide to Religious Traditions and Spirituality for Health Care Providers
      2013 Baptist-Muslim Conference
      2014 Apr 13 AntiSemetic Murders here
      2014 Sept 21 Installation of Plaza Library collection lecture
      2015 Thanks for Noticing: The Interpretation of Desire
      2016 Represent Interfaith at Bishop Johnston's installation
       (I include this as a glaring example where a decade after the Council was spun off from CRES, I was still the point person for interfaith representation.)
      2017 Feb Interfaith Candlemas
      2017 Feb 22 murder of Hindu here
      2018 Feb 2 Interfaith Candlemas
      2018 CBTS "Ministry in a Pluralistic World"
      2021 Al Brooks memoir

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SOME TURNING POINTS FOR CRES

* 1982 CRES founding, mission, motto, etc  -- the Center for Religious Experience and Study -- a multi-faith institute. 
* 1984 CRES The Release, later Many Paths, a 12-page monthly 
> 1984 Japan 
* 1985 CRES began an annual Family Thanksgiving Sunday Interfaith Ritual Meal 
> 1986 India 
> 1986 "Islam and the Muslim World" with International Relations Council 
> 1987 Japan, Korea 
> 1988 NAIN conference, steering committee 
> 1989 Joint workshop with Press Club 
> 1989 Christian Jewish Muslim Dialogue Group 
* 1989 May 11 The Greater Kansas City Interfaith Council was created as a program of CRES, with religions from A to Z:  American Indian, Baha'i, Buddhist, Christian Catholic, Christian Protestant, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Pagan, Sikh, Sufi, Ubitarian Universalist, Zoroastrian (planned then, Christian Orthodox was added later) 
> 1989 Aug 21 Harmony Religion Task Force Covenant signed (expanded to include nontheistic faiths) 
> 1990 KCTA "graduation" 
* 1994-2012 The Kansas City Star invited me to write a professional, Wednesday FYI column, "Faith and Beliefs," continuing for 947 columns, ending in 2012, along with other interfaith columns CRES helped to initiate 
> 1994 United Way study 
> 1994 Spain (Andulusia) 
> 1996 Mayor's Task Force on Race Relations 
> 1997 -- CRES began its web presence with an abundance ot information 
> 1997 Egypt, Jordan 
> 1999 Umbrella proposal 
> 2001 Science and Religion conference: Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences, Berkeley 
> 2001 Sept 11 press conference 
> 2001 Sept 16 Public Interfaith Observance 
> The Jackson County task force to survey the 5-county area after 9/11(which I cahired) we produced a 35,000 word report delivered September 10, 2002 
* 2001 Oct (26)-27-28 Gifts of Pluralism Conference with 250 folks participating, and a pre-conference event for youth Oct 26; the conference issued a significant statement about what we can learn from each other, with a concluding declaration about the three families of faith responding to the three crises of secularism 
> 2002 May 24 Vita Conversations begin 
> 2002 August -- A CBS film crew spent a week in Kansas City filming our interfaith activities 
* 2002 Sept 10 9/11 Jackson County Diversity Task Force 
* 2002 Sept 11 CRES led a day-long, metro-wide day-long (from dusk into the night) interfaith observance of the first anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks 
* 2002 Oct 13 -- CBS-TV broadcast nation-wide a half-hour special from its week with us in August, supplemented by locally-produced video on 2002 September 11. 
> 2004 CBTS 
> 2005 Turkey 
* 2005 January 1 CRES spins off the Interfath Council 
> subsequent CRES workshops, teaching, writing, awards, programs, appearances, etc 
> 2005 Mayors Prayer Breakfast controversy 
> 2005 Nov 10 First Table of Faiths luncheon 
> 2006 KCT award 
> 2007 May SPST 
> 2007 KCPT Talk Back Live (Steve Rose) 
* 2007 June 13-27 -- The nation's first "Interfaith Academies" for professionals and students sponsored by Harvard's Pluralism Project, Religions for Peace-UN Plaza, and others was held here, with arrangements by CRES. 
> 2009 -- The North American Interfaith Network holds its annual convention here. 
> 2010 -- An Annual "Vern Barnet Interfaith Service Award" was initiated and presented as part of a Thanksgiving Interfaith tradition CRES led from 1985-2009
> 2013 Radcliffe Publishing in London issued the 740-page interfaith manual, The Essential Guide to Religious Traditions and Spirituality for Health Care Providers, which I edited with three others here with contributions from some Council members 
> 2013 Baptist-Muslim Conference 
> 2014 Apr 13 AntiSemetic Murders here 
> 2014 Sept 21 Installation of Plaza Library collection lecture 
> 2015 Thanks for Noticing: The Interpretation of Desire, my book of 154 sonnets with extensive notes about references to world religions was published 
> 2016 Represent Interfaith at Bishop Johnston's installation 
       (I include this as a glaring example where a decade after the Council was spun off from CRES, I was still the point person for interfaith representation.) 
> 2017 Feb Interfaith Candlemas 
> 2017 Feb 22 murder of Hindu here 
> 2018 Feb 2 Interfaith Candlemas 
> 2018 CBTS "Ministry in a Pluralistic World" 
> 2021 Al Brooks memoir 
-- Our situation is much changed since 1982, with the development of many groups doing various kinds of interfaith work, but CRES is the longest continuing stand-alone multi-faith organization in the KC region. 

A BRIEF NARRATIVE WITH THE INTERFAITH COUNCIL

Our name is actually the (World Faiths) Center for Religious Experience and Study, as you'll see below the row of symbols here. The name indicates the joining of practice and theory. I did my doctoral work at the University of Chicago where the joking response to any claim, flipping the usual sequence, is, "Well, that's all very well working in practice, but can you make it work in theory?" For CRES, both theory and practice are essential.

For now, let me link to a chart that summarizes our theory of what ails our society --  in three dimensions, the natural environment, personhood, and social comity -- and the resources available from the world's traditions to bring healing to address crises. In your video, you showed how concerned and keenly aware you are of the media's role in degrading civil discourse. Here's the chart:
https://www.cres.org/index1.html#chart

You might want to know something about me. Here is more than you could want to know: 
https://www.cres.org/vern1.htm

Now some of practice--

CRES created and led the Kansas City Interfaith Council from 1989 to 2005, during which it gained prominence in the Kansas City area with the Gifts of Pluralism Conference and 
https://www.cres.org/gifts/index.htm

nationally as the site for the nation's first pair of Interfaith Academies sponsored by Harvard's Pluralism Project and Religions for Peace - USA at the UN Plaza.
https://www.cres.org/pubs/ifa/index.html

Again, locally, CRES pulled together 50 religious satellite sites around the metro to observe a spiritual, rather than militaristic, observance of the first anniversary of 9/11, portions of which were later on a national CBS special. It was a day-long observance beginning at the pool just north of City Hall at dawn with a brass ensemble playing as the sun rose, and concluding with Mayor Barnes and Governor Holden and Jewish and Muslim children singing together in an evening service at the Episcopal Cathedral, with the participation of the KC Ballet, Lyric Opera, and the Symphony. This link summarizes events in 2001 and 2002.
https://www.cres.org/pubs/911_2011/index.htm

On Sept 10, 2002, as chair of a Jackson County commission, along with County Shields, I presented our study of the condition of communities of faith in the metro during the aftermath of 9/11:
https://www.cres.org/pubs/dtf/index.htm

These are a few examples from that period of time.

That era of civic leadership faded as the Council decided on other ways toward its more modest goals, but it still exists, though with a different understanding of its membership and programming.
https://www.cres.org/CRES_to_Council.html

At age 83, I now limit my activities to some teaching and writing, but I retain a passion for multi-faith understanding. Actually, I have become increasingly concerned that even religious professionals have a poor understanding of the world-wide and historic inflections of "religion," as "religion" itself has become distorted in part because of secular categorical thought introduced by the Enlightenment.

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  30 MINUTE PREVIEW
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1. Except from CBS Special Open Hearts, Open Minds, first ten minutes (10 min):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTTtQbeXf-U&feature=youtu.be

2. 9/11 Commemoration Service 2002   (3 min) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwtBzjlC8yk&feature=youtu.be

3. Scroll through photos at  (2 min)
https://www.cres.org/pubs/911_2011/index.htm

4. Summary Report and Concluding Declaration, "Gifts of Pluralism" (5 min)
https://www.cres.org/gifts/index.htm

5. Scroll through and read captions about the Interfaith Academies (5 min)
https://www.cres.org/pubs/ifa/ifaSum.htm

6. Theoretical chart for research  ( 5 min)
https://www.cres.org/index1.html#chart
 

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  ADDITIONAL ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY RESOURCES
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11. A History of the Kansas City Interfaith Council
with
KC's Organizational Failure
United Way Study of Models
"Hub" concept
Criteria for Membership
and other documents
https://www.cres.org/pubs/HistoryIFC.htm

12. Umbrella proposal
https://www.cres.org/pubs/umbrella.pdf

13. Interfaith Milestones
https://www.cres.org/pubs/milestones.htm
 

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  EXTRAS
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21. The Hindu and the Cowboy
https://www.cres.org/pubs/HinduCowboy.htm

22. Mayors Prayer Breakfast
https://www.cres.org/pubs/MayorsPrayerBreakfast.pdf

23. Interfaith Thanksgiving Sunday Family Ritual Meal
https://www.cres.org/pubs/Thgvg.htm

24. Sample issue of MANY PATHS with 4-page insert at end
https://www.cres.org/pubs/mp0810.pdf

25. Interfaith Waters
https://www.cres.org/memorial/index.htm#waters

26. JACKSON  COUNTY DIVERSITY TASK FORCE
https://www.cres.org/pubs/dtf/index.htm
 

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