c/o Emily Barger

A group of approximately 55 Wesleyan students and Middletown-area residents came together on Thursday, March 8 in the Daniel Family Commons with one purpose in mind: to interact with their neighbors through meaningful interfaith dialogue.

Thursday’s event was organized by Hartford Seminary’s Allyson Zacharoff and Muslim Chaplain Imam Sami Aziz, and it was sponsored by the Russell Berrie Foundation and the Interfaith Youth Core. Many campus organizations also participated in the event, including the Muslim Students’ Association (MSA), the Wesleyan Refugee Project, Wesleyan Interfaith Council, and the Office of Religious & Spiritual Life.

“Interfaith work is something the MSA is honing in on for the 2017-18 academic year,” said Eunes Harun ’20. “The current political climate is characterized by the lack of conversations taking place between people of opposing sides and viewpoints. This type of event is exactly what we needed to create an unprecedented level of dialogue. Furthermore, it emphasizes how Wesleyan is at the forefront of confronting current political and social issues in an effort to make the world a better place.”

c/o Emily Barger

The event is what many hope will be the first in a series of interfaith events in Middletown. Organizers intentionally invited local faith leaders and brought together people from many faith and non-faith traditions to begin a conversation about their personal experiences of belief. Attendees were asked to share their personal stories, based on a variety of prompts, with complete strangers.

What began as simple questions that required only a few sentences to answer turned into a dialogue in which individuals discussed not only their own experiences in faith, but also others’ perceptions of their own faith. Each table had people representing different faith groups, and each brought a different viewpoint to the conversation.

“This event was a great demonstration of the passion that exists in our communities for interfaith dialogue,” Zacharoff said. “The fact that we had 20 local communities represented and that so many people left after our short time together with such a large sense of meaning speaks to the power these events have.”

c/o Emily Barger

The event built upon previous efforts by the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life to bring diverse communities together. According to Aziz, the office has long been at the center of establishing an interfaith community that is inclusive, open, and safe.

“Interfaith programming is of utmost importance in today’s political climate because it breaks down the preconceived notions of the other, whoever the other is. We must together stand against hate through the process of getting to know the other,” he said. “An established interfaith community allows for such a process to exist and expand.”

There is now talk of establishing a Middletown-wide Interfaith Council that would include members of Wesleyan student body and Chaplains.

Melisa Olgun can be reached at molgun@wesleyan.edu.