Elder Cook and President Freeman Advance Interfaith Dialogue at New York Forum

Several leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — including Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and Young Women General President Emily Belle Freeman — took part in the Forum on Faith in New York City on Thursday, October 9, 2025.

The forum brought together leaders from religion, government, business, education and the community to talk about the benefits of faith in strengthening individuals and societies. New York Governor Kathy Hochul and the Rev. Al Sharpton were present, among many others.

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“Religious people believe that they’re accountable to God for their actions,” Elder Cook said. “It blesses all of society when you have a lot of people who have faith and feel like they are accountable to God for their conduct. Everything will go better. Our children will have greater lives and greater blessings if that occurs.”

Elder Cook expressed gratitude to Elder David R. Marriott, an Area Seventy, who serves on the New York Commission of Religious Leaders, for helping organize Thursday’s event. Members of the commission played a key role in the gathering, including His Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, along with Rabbi Joseph Potasnik of the New York Board of Rabbis and the Rev. A. R. Bernard, CEO and pastor of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn. Elder Cook was also grateful for the participation of Dave Checketts, a Latter-day Saint, businessman and sports executive.

The Apostle briefly spoke twice at the event, first introducing Michael W. McConnell, a professor and director of Stanford Law School’s Constitutional Law Center, then presenting an award to William P. Mumma, who chairs the board at The Becket Fund.

Elder Cook called Professor McConnell a “friend to all faiths — my own faith included.”

“Professor McConnell’s great work and calling is to be one of the nation’s foremost scholars of constitutional law, with a particular focus on understanding and protecting religious freedom,” Elder Cook said. “His scholarship and public service have deepened our national commitment to a far richer understanding of the place of religion and thus the role of religious freedom — not only as an individual right, but as a cornerstone of a pluralistic and democratic society.”

After McConnell spoke, Elder Cook presented the “Preserving Religious Freedom” award to Mark Rienzi, president & CEO at The Becket Fund, who accepted on behalf of Mumma, who was unable to attend. Elder Cook praised The Becket Fund leader for his guidance through a period of historic successes protecting religious freedom, beginning in 2012 with the unanimous Supreme Court decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC.

“That win was hailed by the Wall Street Journal as ‘among the most significant religious liberty cases in a half century’ because it affirmed that religious groups — not the government — must be free to choose who will guide their congregation,” Elder Cook said.

The spirit of interfaith cooperation that Elder Cook spoke of was evident among the many religious leaders in attendance. They included several other of Elder Cook’s friends from the New York religion scene, such as Cardinal Dolan, Rabbi Potasnik, the Rev. Bernard and Rabbi Meir Soloveichik of Congregation Shearith Israel.

Rabbi Potasnik said Thursday’s gathering reminded him of the four walls that once surrounded the temple in Jerusalem. Today one still stands — and it’s a symbol of coming together for the common good.

“The wall that remains today is the one that everyone worked on collaboratively,” he said. “We can build things that last. As Jews, we can’t fight anti-Semitism alone. We need partners, and we’re very thankful for those who stood with us. When we’re all together, anti-Semitism is anti-Christianity is anti-Islam. And you can reverse that in any form and you’ll get the same result. We need to protect one another. We need to protest for one another.”

Caura Richardson, Director of the New York State Office of Faith and Nonprofit Development Services, received the “Fostering Faith in the Public Arena” award and is already planning for next year’s forum.

“Building these bridges, building these connections, even with our interfaith council, becomes so important… because it's ongoing. It's not just a one-stop shop, but we keep it going at every dimension. It's not just in the hard times we come together, but in the joyous times, like moments like these," said Richardson.

Cardinal Dolan, in his lunchtime remarks, said the Forum on Faith brought to his mind scriptures from the Hebrew Bible that Catholics recently read at Mass. The Prophet Habakkuk laments the horrors he sees around him and pleads for God’s help.

God’s response was that deliverance would come — but not yet.

“Belief in that promise is precisely what brings us here this happy afternoon,” Cardinal Dolan said.

During the afternoon keynote address, Honorable Rowan D. Wilson, Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, highlighted that faith in many systems is essential.

“Faith in the divine, faith in the law, or faith in our fellow human beings are all interconnected. When one strand of faith frays, we must strengthen the others as a way to repair the frayed fabric. Those of you who’ve chosen to be here today know that and know that our mission is to spread that faith to others in whatever way we can, from the tiny act of holding a door open to the monumental act of forgiving someone who has wronged us terribly,” said Wilson.

President Freeman, the Church’s global leader of young women, participated in a panel focused on strengthening the rising generation. She spoke excitedly of the young people’s return to faith.

“It’s happening in Africa. It’s happening in the United States. It’s happening in Europe,” she said. “We are seeing youth return to religion and embrace faith in ways that they haven’t before. That is such an exciting thing to see. And one of the things that we talked about today is to remember how much we need to trust them, to engage in faith conversations with them, and that we can learn from them and from their enthusiasm.”

President Freeman said she enjoyed being at the Forum on Faith because of the opportunity to learn from other faiths and witness their passion for helping others.

“We are all in the cause of good, and we all believe in a higher power that is divinely orchestrating important events here on earth,” she said. “I see things that they are doing with their youth, with the rising generation, that I think, ‘I can learn from this, and I could be better at this.’ I hope each of us will go home from this event equipped and empowered to do a little bit more good in the place where we stand.”

She was joined on the panel by Bishop Victor Brown of Mt. Sinai United Christian Church, Dr. Debbie Almontaser of Bridging Cultures Group, Inc., and Sam Wilkinson of Yale University.

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“In the toxic public discourse and a divide racially that seems to be expanding, I think initiatives and gatherings of this nature give us tremendous hope that this situation can indeed turn around,” Bishop Brown said.

Other Latter-day Saint participants at the forum included Elder Allen D. Haynie, the Church’s United States Northeast Area President.

“In a world filled with conflict and disagreement and dissension, it’s the religious community with all of its inherent differences that’s best positioned to promote a functional dialog and a practical approach to peace,” Elder Haynie said during lunch while presenting the “Building Interfaith Bridges” award to Bishop John Drew Sheard of the Greater Emanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ.

Later in the day, the Church’s global Director of Humanitarian Services Sharon Eubank co-led a working group session about JustServe and coordinated community service. She also received the “Inspiring a Culture of Service” award.

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