“Recognizing the imperative need for dialogue among different faiths and religions to enhance mutual understanding, harmony and cooperation among people.” —UN General Assembly Resolution creating World Interfaith Harmony Week
Nearly a century and a half later, on March 15, 2019, a gunman killed 51 worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. But this time the global reaction was instant. The New Zealand government immediately initiated sweeping reforms while international bodies moved rapidly to reaffirm commitments to interfaith dialogue and safety. Open-air interfaith worship services drew thousands. Sports teams cancelled games out of respect. National and religious leaders spoke out. Mosques around the globe became the site of interfaith vigils, messages and floral tributes.
Reverend Patty Allread, Public Affairs Director for the Church of Scientology Albuquerque, attended one of those vigils at a local mosque.
For her, it was an “aha” moment.
“It all begins with communication.”
From her place in the crowd, she saw a panorama of faith: The Monsignor from the Santa Fe archdiocese. A rabbi from a local synagogue. A member of the Sikh community. Ministers, pastors and congregants came together to form a tapestry of religions—each bowing to a Higher Power in their own way.
“All I heard from everyone who was there,” Patty tells Freedom, “was compassion and offers of help. It was uplifting, because when we communicate with each other like that, it creates a broader community of religious and spiritual people who can get a lot done.”
Communication among faiths to create that broader community is the aim of World Interfaith Harmony Week. The annual initiative provides a platform—seven days each year—for interfaith groups to demonstrate the power of their movement to the world. That power is grounded in mutual respect and a willingness to understand the deepest beliefs of one’s neighbors, whether one agrees with them or not.
A thousand miles away and some 15 years earlier, Patty’s counterpart, Reverend Brian Fesler, had a similar experience.
The local news reported an arson that had damaged a mosque in the northern part of town. “It just didn’t sit right with me,” Rev. Fesler remembers. “So the next morning I found one of my members, and we went up there—went to a Home Depot, got some plywood and started fixing it. No one was around, and we didn’t ask permission. I just didn’t want the little kids to come in the next day to worship and see that somebody had torched their building.
“While I was out there, the news media came by, expecting to see the destruction, but instead they saw two people fixing the place. Then the mosque found out what we were doing, and I met with them. I didn’t really know anything about the Muslim faith at the time but they were just beautiful people. So, after that, I just started reaching across faith borders to learn.”
Reverend Fesler has served the Church of Scientology of Nashville since 2009. And although recent ice storms on the East Coast cancelled all planned events for World Interfaith Harmony Week, the Reverend remained at his desk—making calls, organizing future events and sustaining interfaith dialogue despite the weather. He serves in leadership roles with the national Religion Communicators Council, the Nashville Interdenominational Ministers Fellowship and the Nashville Interfaith Crawl—which brings Muslim, Jewish and Hindu communities together to visit each other’s houses of worship—making Rev. Fesler the city’s go-to person for all things interfaith.
“I have a lot of things going on!” he laughs.
Rev. Fesler has helped organize marches for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, music concerts featuring performers of all faiths and events for the annual Tennessee celebration of Human Rights Day.
Human rights, particularly freedom of religion, are a passion point in the hearts of Scientologists. Built into the Church’s Creed is the belief “That all men have inalienable rights to their own religious practices and their performance.”
Scientologists believe that faith itself is a positive force. They therefore want to do everything possible to defend and empower other religions. “Probably the most critical point of attack on a culture is its religious experience,” L. Ron Hubbard wrote. “Where one can destroy or undermine religious institutions then the entire fabric of the society can be quickly subverted or brought to ruin.
“Religion is the first sense of community. Your sense of community occurs by reason of mutual experience with others. Where the religious sense of community and with it real trust and integrity can be destroyed then that society is like a sand castle unable to defend itself against the inexorable sea.”
In order to do her part to protect that cornerstone of community, Rev. Allread has taken an active leadership role in bringing people of different faiths together. As President of the New Mexico Interfaith Dialogue (NMID), she organizes and hosts events at least every four weeks. The most popular of these is the monthly “This is What I Would Like People to Know About My Faith” speaker series.
Last fall, the NMID featured a Latter-day Saint, a Greek Orthodox Christian and a Jew. The 2026 series began with a Hindu and continues with a Seventh-day Adventist, followed by a representative of the Native American Church and the Imam of the Islamic Center of New Mexico. Her friend and fellow board member, Gordon Bronitsky, first proposed the speaker series, and Patty has run with it. She says she’s learned that what people want most from interfaith activities is for others to understand their religion.
“I’ve noticed how grateful people are to be able to talk, and so, we don’t tell them what to say. We just give them a time limit. They’re so happy to share their beliefs.”
“Now that we’re friends, let’s ask ourselves: ‘How can we fix this world together?’”
Word has spread about the speaker series as well as the annual spring colloquium, where distinguished speakers from diverse faiths explore topics like last year’s examination of stereotyping and this year’s focus on finding common ground.
One of the secrets to NMID’s current success is Patty’s commitment to openness and welcome. As she writes in a recent article in the New Mexico Jewish Journal: “It all begins with communication, and that is why NMID is dedicated to facilitating respectful understanding of faith traditions.”
The two reverends find that, as representatives of the Church, facilitating interfaith dialogue aligns perfectly with their religion. For one, the Code of a Scientologist, authored by L. Ron Hubbard, has each member pledge “To support the freedom of religion” for the “good of all.” For another, Mr. Hubbard also wrote: “Men without faith are a pretty sorry lot. They can even be given something to have faith in. But when they have religious beliefs, respect them.”
As Rev. Allread says, “Our church has the role of being a safe place for people to come and communicate—no matter their faith.”
To that, Rev. Fesler adds, “I like to invite people over for a cup of coffee so we can just sit together for an hour and learn about each other’s religion.”
Out of that kind of engagement, both explain, a community of religions is born as a powerful force for good.
Because, as he puts it, the natural next step is: “Now that we’re friends, let’s ask ourselves: ‘How can we fix this world together?’”
That’s precisely the mission of World Interfaith Harmony Week: understanding as a stepping stone to mutual cooperation.
New Zealand’s Prime Minister expressed the whole idea in three words, as she comforted thousands of people of different faiths, drawn together in prayer that grim March day:
“We are one.”
