Interfaith collaboration has been on my mind a lot this week as both Katy and I had a chance to hear from the Mirembe Kawomera coffee cooperative in Uganda as they visited our area. The cooperative, consisting of 700 small scale farmers from the Jewish, Muslim and Christian faiths, offers a transformative model of peace and cooperation through coffee farming. Their product is distributed, thanks to the good folks of Thanksgiving Coffee, through buying clubs at mosques, churches and synagogues and those sales, like the typical Fair Trade model, finance health projects, education efforts and coffee quality improvements.

What’s unique about the “Delicious Peace” cooperative is its intentional coming together of religious groups that had traditionally been separated through political strife and animosity. The speakers on tour, pointed out that through the cooperative they are able to put their heads together “around a common table” to make decisions. Margaret, a Catholic representative, reflected, “It’s not just about making money but about making peace in our country.”