Local religious leaders host fourth annual Interfaith service

Ridgefield — Nearly 200 congregants representing six different faiths and traditions from Clark County met for the fourth annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. This year’s service was hosted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at its Ridgefield Washington Stake Center. The service aspires to bring together members and leaders of different faiths in the local community in a spirit of Thanksgiving and unity of purpose. Clark County Poet Laureate and Chaplain at Legacy Salmon Creek Hospital Gwendolyn Morgan helped to organize the Interfaith Coalition of Southwest Washington four years ago. The stated purpose of the coalition is “to offer our gratitude as one community united by the belief that the goodness we have in common is stronger than that which divides us.” Other speakers included Rabbi Elizabeth Dunsker of Congregation of Kol Ami, Pawneet Sethi and his daughter of the Southwest Washington Sikh Community, the Rev. Gary Lazzeroni of St. Thomas Aquinas/St. Joseph Catholic Churches, Dr. Khalid Khan of the Masjid Al-Noor Mosque/Islamic Society of Southwest Washington, Mike Centner of the Vancouver Baha’I Community, the Rev. Joe Scheeler with The Traveling Day Society and Ronald Kramer of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.