On March 6th, Abbey Road Christian Church in Cape Girardeau hosted an Interfaith event called “Building Bridges and Friendships” with our local Islamic Center. The event was designed to establish positive relationships with our local Muslim neighbors through a potluck meal and dialogue. We had over 50 people attend from both communities and had a fabulous feast of great variety.

Following the meal, we honored the Islamic call to prayer with both traditions praying in their respective ways. Our dialogue time consisted of three topics with a presenter on each topic from each tradition. The topics were:

Is the ‘other’ my neighbor?
Misunderstandings and Truth
How I live out my Faith

This gathering was a great success in every way and both traditions felt they had learned much and grown in appreciation of the other. We plan to have a follow-up in a similar fashion hosted by the Islamic Center.

Story and photo courtesy of ARCC Transitional Minister Ron Routledge.