Interfaith of Topeka

09/03/2026

We've been working on a site redesign. Over the next few months, we'll continue to make updates. Thanks for your patience!

09/03/2026

09/03/2026

When God Gets Strange: Mystics, Visions & Other Ways of Knowing They saw things. Heard things. Fell into ecstasy. Talked to God. Argued with God. Found the sacred in hazelnuts, gardens, music, illness, desire, darkness, and the human body. And six hundred years later, we're still trying to figure ou...

09/03/2026

Please share with your networks! The proceeds of this sale go to benefit Mission and Outreach.

09/03/2026

09/03/2026

Promising a future of jobs and economic opportunity, large-scale data centers also come with a host of challenges: land and water use, environmental impacts, impacts on local electricity grids, and concerns about corporate accountability. That’s why they have generated so much opposition throughout the state.

We’re excited to announce that this fall, Kansas Interfaith Action will hold a series of panel discussions starting later this month, looking at the challenges posed by the rapid build-out of data centers, and asking whether it is possible to establish sufficient guardrails to allow these projects to move forward.

As people of faith and conscience, we must consider the implications of large-scale data centers on the earth and on those who are most vulnerable in our communities. Join us for this important conversation.

We will start in Winfield, Newton, and Manhattan. Then we’ll continue to Wichita, Hutchinson, Emporia, Topeka, and Johnson County. For now, go to bit.ly/kifadatacentertour to see more info and to RSVP!

09/03/2026

Please join us for the Days of Awe!

09/03/2026

Become Who You Already Are
By Richard Brown, SDT
Back when I first started practicing, I attended a retreat at the Kansas Zen Center. Their retreats began at 5:30 AM, and they didn’t serve any coffee. Not being a morning person, I’d forced myself to get up before 5:00. The sky was as dark as my mood. After breakfast I had one of my first interviews. As I sat down, my head pounding from an early caffeine withdrawal headache, the teacher asked how I was. Not wanting to be a complainer, I thought I’d put a positive spin on things. I said I was tired, but that I was beginning to wake up. His eyes lit up! He thrust his arms in my direction and shouted, “WONDERFUL! That’s what we’re here for!” This was the first time I’d heard of Zen being a process of waking up. It was one of those times when a skilled teacher stops a student’s discursive mind cold and makes them wonder, “What is this?” This actually became an informal kong-an for me over a period of many years. “What is this waking up? Waking up to what?” At the next retreat, I asked this same teacher what enlightenment is. How it changes you. He replied that it doesn’t change you. It simply allows you to become more like who you are. Again: “What is this? Who exactly are we?”

These two kong-ans are related and have been working on me for decades. Only in the past few years as my practice intensified, have I been able to make more sense of them. “Waking up”, and “being who you already are” simply refer to giving up your attachment to stories and limitations you’ve made up about yourself, rather that acting without expectations, without thoughts of the past, the future, and just being present. Right here. Right now. Also, they speak to the fact that who you really are is a Buddha. This concept always reminds me of a photo I have of three life-sized Buddhas, each "separated" from one another in their own clear plastic bag, smiling from the bed of a pickup truck. We are all Buddhas living in a dream in which we are separate from one another, from our communities, from this world and unaware of our Buddhahood.

So, then how do we wake up? The answer is the same as the answer to the question, “How do I get to Carnegie Hall?” Practice, practice, practice. Another early teacher of mine was fond of saying, “This practice is truly transformative.” Just sitting down on the cushion regularly, watching your breathing and asking “What is this?” does, over time, actually change your mind. It changes how you see yourself and your place in the world.
prairyertyzen.org

09/03/2026

Join us for our November Humanist Gathering featuring a special presentation by Dr. Darrel W. Ray, Ed.D.!
Presentation: Recovering From Religious Trauma and Abuse (NOT a 12-Step Program)
Speaker: Dr. Darrel W. Ray (Founder of Recovering From Religion & Institute for Secular Leadership)
Date: Sunday, November 1, 2026
Time & Location: To Be Determined based on RSVPs
How to RSVP & Register
Please RSVP as soon as possible so we can finalize the room size and location! You can register by:
* Replying/Messaging directly on this app or via Facebook Messenger
* Emailing [email protected]
* Calling 785-260-0268
Hosted by Humanists of Topeka — an official chapter of the American Humanist Association and affiliate of American Atheists.

08/24/2026

"Before writing this blog, I asked young people from around the world for their thoughts on how they are treated by older generations. Their message was loud and clear. Young people feel they have so much to offer, if only given the chance.
Across the socio-economic spectrum, regardless of religion or ethnicity, almost every young person who wrote to me expressed a longing to be given a voice and the chance to make a difference. We ignore them at our peril."

Read the full story here >>>
https://www.theinterfaithobserver.org/journal-articles/2014/5/15/what-the-young-can-teach-us-if-given-the-chance.html?