
The Bethlehem Interfaith Group began in 2017 with Rabbi Michael Singer of Congregation Brith Sholom reaching out to Christian clergy in Bethlehem to unite their congregations in common cause.
These days, BIG meets monthly and focuses on friendship, education, and social justice. It has sponsored several “faith crawls,” during which participants travel by bus to visit the places its constituent communities call home. At each site, participants learn about the history, traditions, and practices of the hosting faith community. Faith crawls have visited Brith Sholom (three times), the Respect Graduate School (Turkish Muslims—three times), Central Moravian Church, First Presbyterian Church, Lehigh Valley Friends (Quakers), Wesley Methodist, St. John’s Windish Lutheran, St. John A.M.E. Zion (the first and oldest Black congregation in the Valley), and Packer Memorial Church at Lehigh University, where participants recently learned about the history of this building and the nondenominational work of the current university chaplain and about the work of the university’s associate chaplains to Catholic and Jewish students.
BIG holds an annual interfaith Thanksgiving service and has hosted interfaith presentations at the annual 10-day Musikfest, which draws over 1 million to Bethlehem each August. It is also a cosponsor of the February 2025 interfaith celebration presented by Touchstone Theater in the IceHouse Tonight performing arts venue, an event including a variety of religious traditions. During COVID, when the group couldn’t meet in person, then-President Beth Goudy worked with members to create inspiring online presentations.
The group formally responded to a December 2022 incident at Christkindlmarkt in which several visitors wore antisemitic T-shirts and voiced antisemitic views, and in response to the January 2023 fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, by Memphis police. BIG also hosted two vigils at Payrow Plaza next to the Bethlehem Public Library in support of Ukraine.
BIG has hosted educational events with representatives from the Justice Department to educate its members on how to respond to hate mail and other expressions of hate. It also supports several community events focusing on affordable housing and combating hate.
By the Rev. Cindy Simmons. The Rev. Cindy Simmons is president of BIG and a parish associate at the First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem.