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About PIIN

The Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network (PIIN) is a network of congregations and organizations in Southwestern Pennsylvania committed to drawing together people of faith to act powerfully on local and regional issues of justice and fairness. Through the processes of community-building, working with politicians and policy makers, direct action, and negotiation, we transform our communities.

PIIN is also an affiliate of the Gamaliel Foundation, a international network of more than 60 local and regional congregation-based organizing groups.

Vision and Values

PIIN is a vehicle for people of faith from the Pittsburgh and the region to come together, express the deepest values of their traditions and affect systemic change on commonly held issues of injustice, disparity, and discrimination. We know that positive social change in society has always come from organized people in some form, and that the organized faith community has often formed the backbone of the most powerful social movements in this country (such as the Civil Rights Movement.)

We also recognize that our current society does not reflect our shared faith values, as too many of our families lack living wage jobs, quality public education, and a healthy, safe environment and neighborhood. We believe our shared faith values call us to act together as agents of change in order to create a more just world. We celebrate the power of working together as a diverse coalition of many backgrounds and faith traditions: We are better together.

How We Work

PIIN currently has more than 40 member institutions. Our spiritual leaders and members of our congregations are the decision makers on the PIIN board and collectively set the agenda for the organization. Through face-to-face conversation within our congregations and communities, we identify and select the issues PIIN addresses. We analyze the power dynamics around an issue, develop a local, regional, or statewide strategy, and work with politicians and policy makers to create the policy changes we need to transform our communities. In this way, community residents and people of faith own the organizing process, participating together in the public arena to influence decisions that affect their lives and their communities.

Regional Expansion

From its inception, PIIN was conceived as a regional organization. In its first decade, most PIIN congregations were urban and PIIN issues were primarily those impacting the urban poor and working class. PIIN will continue to grow its base in Pittsburgh and the first ring suburbs and focus its energy on the issues facing its core populations. At the same time, a Regional Expansion Team of clergy leaders is focused on bringing on board new congregations from suburban Allegheny County. Our goal is to build a strong base in all parts of the county as well as adjacent counties. If PIIN and its partners are to fundamentally improve the situation of our congregations and communities, we will need a base that can influence decisions in the county, the region, and the state.

Member Congregations

  • Abiding Faith Ministry, Sheraden
  • Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church, Northside
  • Baptist Temple Church, Homewood
  • Beth Shalom, Squirrel Hill
  • Bidwell Presbyterian Church, Northside
  • Calvary Episcopal Church, Shadyside
  • Carrone Baptist Church, Homewood
  • Church of the Holy Cross Episcopal, Homewood
  • Church of the Redeemer Episcopal, Squirrel Hill
  • Cityview Church, Northside
  • Community of Reconciliation, Oakland
  • Congregation Dor Hadash, Squirrel Hill
  • Deliverance Baptist Church, Wilkinsburg
  • Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Northside
  • First Baptist Church, Penn Hills
  • First Unitarian Church, Shadyside
  • Grace Memorial Presbyterian Church, Hill District
  • Islamic Center of Pittsburgh, Oakland
  • Kingdom Life Fellowship, Knoxville
  • Northside Institutional Church, Northside
  • Pittsburgh Mennonite Church, Swissvale
  • Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Shadyside
  • Resurrection Baptist Church, Braddock
  • Rodef Shalom Congregation, Oakland
  • Rodman Steet Missionary Baptist Church, East Liberty
  • Sisters of Divine Providence, North Hills
  • Sisters Of Mercy of Allegheny County, Oakland
  • Sisters of St. Joseph, Baden
  • Sixth Presbyterian Church
  • South Side Presbyterian Church, South Side
  • St. Charles Lwanga Roman Catholic Church, Homewood
  • St. James A.M.E. Church, Larimer
  • St. James Roman Catholic Church, Wilkinsburg
  • St. Paul AME Church, Knoxville
  • St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church of Wilkinsburg
  • Temple Sinai, Squirrel Hill
  • Union Baptist Church, Swissvale
  • Unitarian Universalist Church of the North Hills
  • Unitarian Universalist Church of the South Hills
  • Valley View Presbyterian Church, Garfield
  • Wesley Center AME Zion Church, Hill District
  • White Lilly Baptist Church, West End

Organizational Members

  • Association of Pittsburgh Priests
  • Bend The Arc: Pittsburgh
  • CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations), Pittsburgh Chapter
  • Casa San Jose, Beechview
  • Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, Monroeville
  • Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh
  • Muslim Association of Pittsburgh
  • North Hills Anti-Racism Coalition
  • Pittsburgh Coalition of Black Trade Unionists
  • Pittsburgh Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (USA)
  • Pittsburgh Theological Seminary / Metro Urban Institute
  • Thomas Merton Center