CRES developed, financed, and ran the Council as one of our programs for 16 years, from 1989 until 2005. Then we asked the members to form an independent organization. We retain cordial relations, but to honor its independence, we have no organizational role with the Council.

     In 2001, CRES sponsored and led the area's largest interfaith conference, The Gifts of Pluralism, employing members of the Council. In 2007 on behalf of the Council, CRES did the groundwork, planning, and local leadership for the nation's first "National Interfaith Academies" (which turned out to be international), sponsored by the Pluralism Project at Harvard University, Religions for Peace-USA, and the Saint Paul School of Theology.

     The Council offers a weekly emailed list of events in the area and is happy to include appropriate announcements to further interfaith undertanding.  

     Beyond fostering good interfaith relations, the mission of CRES is more specific than the Council's -- and our once expansive programming is now more focused. We want to help apply the insights of Primal, Asian, and Monotheistic faiths to the three great crises of our time: in the environment, in personhood, and in society. 
     Our vision, mission, values, and motto appear below.

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