By: McKelvey Collins

Rockbridge Interfaith hosted a panel at Washington and Lee University’s Hillel House on Nov. 13. Created in 2016, Interfaith is a community organization that focuses on bringing people of different religions and traditions together through discussion and education.

The panel consisted of people of different religions who came to share their faith’s point of view on the question, “what is a stranger?”

The panelists were Mohamed Eltoweissy (Muslim), Wendelin Wagner (Buddhist), Rachel Reibach (Jewish), Avtar Moore (Sikh), and Judi Rhodes (Christian). Washington and Lee professor Mohamed Kamara was the moderator. The purpose of the panel was to form a connection between different faiths, as well as the Lexington community, through moderated discussion.

“We’re seeing such a similarity between all of our religions. Actually, if you ask two different Catholics or two different Sikhs, or two different anyone what is their religion, you’ll get different definitions,” said Moore. “It means something a little bit different to each of us. So this, to me, was just real refreshing to talk about the similarity.”

The panelists discussed what their specific religion meant to them and the way they defined “strangers” according to their faith, and how interactions shape people’s actions and personal beliefs.

“I really enjoyed hearing from other people who love their tradition because it’s inspiring to me to see people who love where they come from and what they know, and it inspires me in my tradition and I was surprised by that,” said Wagner. “I didn’t realize that I would be so inspired listening to other people talk about their faith. It made me love my tradition and feel like we have a kinship because we love our traditions and that’s a commonality that I didn’t expect.”

Audience members participated by asking the panelists questions and offering their own personal beliefs and views.

“Hopefully there will be more opportunities like this, with more participation so that people realize, and more than realize, experience there aren’t that many differences. People are willing to help. People are wanting to get to know other people,” said Moore. “If we just break down our dogmatic views of someone, we go back to our true self. Then we realize we have fun with these people. We have something in common.”

Interfaith currently hosts one panel discussion and one community celebration every year. Their public activity will take place on May 2.