Award for Interfaith Education and Service

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Huston Smith Award for Interfaith Education and Service

According to his official biography, located with his collection of papers and work at Syracuse University, Dr. Huston Cummings Smith, “made a lifelong journey exploring what he called ‘the great Wisdom Traditions.’ He wrote innumerable books, essays and articles on philosophy and religion; he hosted two public television series; and he circled the world more than ten times seeking answers to religious questions through lived experience. During his travels, Huston Smith encountered and befriended many well-known and history-making individuals, including the Dalai Lama XIV, Timothy Leary, Ram Dass, and Martin Luther King, Jr.”

“In 2009, Smith was named a ‘sage’ of the Order of Universal Interfaith (OUnI), a universal ecclesiastic order, associated with the Council of Interfaith Communities (CIC-USA). The CIC-USA annually presents the Huston Smith Award for Interfaith Education, given to honor those who teach about world religions in ways that promote understanding, harmony and respect.”

With his permission, Smith asked that one of the first Huston Smith Awards go to someone he mentored. That was Dr. M. Darrol Bryant of Ontario, Canada. Bryant received his award at a ceremony in Canada in November 2010, with the local interfaith community present to honor the first recipient.

With the disbanding of the Council of Interfaith Communities in 2015, OUnI, as the original requestor and recipient of the permission to create the named award, assumed the duty of continuing to honor this outstanding spiritual educator and academic.

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Besides Bryant, the list of awardees of the Huston Smith Award for Interfaith Education includes:

2010: Dr. M. Darrol Bryant — November 2010 in Ontario, Canada

2011: Reverend Diane Burke — March 2012 in Nashville, Tennessee
Rabbi Joseph Gelberman (Lifetime Achievement)

2012: Reverend Dr. John R. Mabry — March 2013 in Nashville, Tennessee

2013: Reverend Dr. Joyce Liechenstein — March 2014 in Phoenix, Arizona
Reverend Gina Rose Halpern (Lifetime Achievement)
Reverend Jacob Watson (Lifetime Achievement)
Father Giles Spoonhour (Lifetime Achievement)

2020: Rabbi Rami Shapiro — May 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee