Clark Lobenstine has been the executive director of the InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington since 1979, shortly after it formed as the first staffed interfaith group in the United States to work with Jews, Christians and Muslims. Lobenstine holds a doctorate in Christian-Muslim relations and is a volunteer assistant minister at Silver Spring Presbyterian Church, a diverse congregation with a large number of Cameroonian members. He lives in Northwest D.C. with his wife, who is also a minister; they have adult twin sons and three grandchildren. He spoke with The Examiner about the challenges and rewards of interfaith partnership. You’ve worked with the InterFaith Conference for more than three decades. What changes have you seen in the religious community over that time?
A lot more faith communities are members of the InterFaith Conference. When we started it was the first conference to get Muslims to work with the Jewish, Protestant and Roman Catholic communities. … Our experience is that as we deepened our understanding of each other, we also built a trust that allows us to work on issues. So one change is we’re now 11 faith communities instead of four.
