Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable recognizes diocesan director of faith formation for service

Courtesy photo/Interfaith Roundtable

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Susan Northway, director of the Diocese of Salt Lake City's Office of Faith Formation, (left) was recently presented with an award by Interfaith Roundtable Chair Josie Stone.

SALT LAKE CITY — Every year at its annual prayer breakfast the Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable honors some individuals who have contributed to the success of the organization and its mission.

This year at the breakfast, which was held Jan. 31 at Salt Lake City Marriott University Park, Susan Northway, director of the Diocese of Salt Lake City’s Office of Faith Formation, was recognized with an award for service to the roundtable.

“Susan is very positive as a member of the board of directors, and is always well-researched in her information, and just an incredibly, lovely person to work with,” Interfaith Roundtable Chair Josie Stone said. “She is just such a valuable member of our board and of the whole organization. She always reflects very intellectual views on the decisions we make and is well prepared. She’s just an extraordinary woman.”

“She is always ready to help, very thoughtful, very dedicated, committed and willing to give time,” Stone added. “She is a great ambassador for the Catholic Church.”

Northway was honored with the award for “her community service, unfailing dedication and hard work and commitment to the diocese and Interfaith Roundtable,” Stone said.

Northway has been a member of the Interfaith Roundtable for several years and a board member for more than five.

“It’s been wonderful,” she said of that experience. “It has been very empowering to come to table fellowship with people from the interfaith community. It’s wonderful to see how much we have in common; everyone has such an underlying respect for the dignity of the human person.”

The Interfaith Roundtable has strong support from Bishop Oscar A. Solis; the diocese’s participation in the organization has been an example to other dioceses and it shows that Utah Catholics are not an insular group but rather are attempting to strongly model collaboration with others as encouraged by Vatican II, Northway said.

“Our top faith leaders support this, and they send their representatives and they’re concerned about homelessness, child abuse, health care, freedom of religion, hate crimes” and other social justice issues, she said.

“I’m just doing what I feel deeply is important in this particular ministry,” she said of receiving the award. “I have had such a unique experience working with and making friendships with these wonderful people from other groups.”

The Very Rev. Langes J. Silva, judicial vicar of the Diocese of Salt Lake City, attended the Jan. 31 breakfast with Northway. He attends many of the roundtable’s events as one of the diocese’s ecumenical officers.

“I think that it was very good for the diocese to receive that honor in the person of Susan Northway, who has done a significant work in behalf of the diocese here in Utah,” Fr. Silva said.

Other recipients of the award this year were Episcopal Rev. Elizabeth Hinter for her work in the community, and Indra and Neale Neelameggham of the Hindu community for their support of the organization since its inception and their involvement as members of the board.

The Interfaith Roundtable was formed in 1999 by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Olympic Winter Games to provide religious support for athletes and their families. When the Games concluded, members of the Interfaith Roundtable expressed a desire to continue the dialogue that had been established among Utah faith communities. The group has continued to meet monthly each year from September through May and to collaborate on mutual interfaith goals ever since.