In December 2001, the Peninsula Community
Foundation and the Peninsula FAITHS Partnership sponsored
a morning of dialogue for an unusual mix of community
leaders: clergy and civic leaders—city managers
and school superintendents. The foundation hoped to
foster relations of religious tolerance among diverse
faiths and throughout the community.
The response of both clergy and civic leaders to
that morning of intense and productive conversation
revealed a need for a multi-faith, professional association
for clergy that would support and enhance their leadership
in congregations and facilitate further community
engagement. The Peninsula encompasses almost
600 square miles between San Francisco and San Jose.
In that region, approximately 900,000 people reside,
in 26 cities and 33 school districts.
The resulting Peninsula Clergy Network (PCN), an
interactive network of clergy in San Mateo and Northern
Santa Clara Counties, builds knowledge, understanding,
and working relationships. The PCN promotes increased
interaction between religious and civic leaders on
behalf of the communities they jointly serve.
In this work, the PCN does not advocate, urge a particular
faith, or seek religious solutions to civic and secular
issues. Instead, the PCN provides the relationships
and framework for fostering awareness, understanding,
and community engagement.
Since the initial Dialogue in 2001, the PCN
has transformed the professional relationships among
the region's clergy and forged new relations
between clergy and other civic leaders. Through
the PCN, clergy of all faiths work with civic leaders
in education, business, local government, and social
services to address issues of importance to the Peninsula
communities.
The PCN, unique in the United States, is now recognized
nationally as the model for overcoming polarization
among faiths and bridging the gap between faith communities
and the larger community. Key to the advances
of the PCN is the creation of a database, also the
only one of its kind in the country, of the 440 Peninsula
clergy and 310 congregations. The database has allowed
the University of Southern California Center for Religion
and Civic Society to study the region’s clergy
regarding their training, participation in local, denominational
and interfaith clergy associations, and their community
involvement.
The PCN offers the Peninsula region’s diverse
clergy opportunities for professional growth and support. In
addition, the PCN provides consultation and technical
training for government, education, business, nonprofit,
and faith-based organizations interested in greater
understanding and engagement with the diversity of
the region’s faith communities.
Rabbi Jay Miller, Executive Director of the PCN since
January 2002, brings to the PCN three decades of service
to congregations and the community and a long history
of initiating and coordinating clergy involvement in
community issues.
The PCN is governed by a Board of Directors of eighteen clergy. Twenty local and national community leaders serve on the PCN Community Advisory Committee. The PCN was established through grants from the Peninsula Community Foundation (now the Silicon Valley Community Foundation) and the Walter and Elise Haas Fund and funds from foundations, family funds, clergy and other individual donors.
