Church, Islamic group to offer Teatime for Peace

Event meant to ‘build bridges,’ dispel fear, promote understanding

An event aimed at unifying people of various faiths is coming to Mentor.

Teatime for Peace will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m., April 17 at Advent Lutheran Church, 7985 Munson Road in Mentor.

The event is being sponsored by the Cleveland chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

All are welcome, said Tim Krueger, a church prayer committee member who helped bring the event to town. He and his wife attended a Teatime for Peace in 2016 at St. Noel’s Catholic Church in Willoughby Hills.

“We hope to get people from different faith traditions and religious backgrounds together for deep conversation so that they might get to know and understand each other on new and different levels,” Krueger said. “We also hope to create peace by building a loving community through recognizing, validating and accepting our differences. We have a shared humanity and we need to recognize our own biases in order to eliminate fear of ‘the other.’”

The event will include refreshments and fellowship, plus time for table discussions and large-group sharing. Bishop Abraham Allende of the Northeast Ohio Synod-Evangelical Lutheran Church in America will be the special guest.

The first Teatime for Peace was conducted by West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church and the Council in 2016 in Rocky River. Since then, a dozen others have occurred throughout the greater Cleveland area at various churches and mosques.

“The intention was to bring the Muslim community together with the wider community as a show of support and solidarity due to the language of fear, separation and hate during the 2016 election cycle,” said Humera Khan, part of the Council’s Teatime for Peace steering committee. “We hope to dispel some myths and address the stereotypes which the general public has with regard to the Muslim community. Getting to know one another as individuals over a cup of tea and coffee and having conversations will, we hope, build bridges and recognize our shared humanity.”

The events usually draw about 100 people, but the one at the Islamic Center of Cleveland in Parma attracted 225 attendees. The next one is May 10 at Trinity Cathedral in downtown Cleveland.

The Council is a grassroots civil rights and advocacy group, and America’s largest Muslim civil liberties organization with regional offices nationwide. CAIR’s national headquarters are on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C.

Since its establishment in 1994, CAIR has worked to promote a positive image of Islam and Muslims in America.

“Right now, the focus is on Muslims, but the intention is also to bring in anyone who is being marginalized,” Khan said. “Someone coming may be meeting a Muslim for the first time and may, to their astonishment, find them to be very normal. They are amazed that Abraham, Moses, Noah and Jesus are all revered in Islam and that there is a chapter on Mary in the Holy Quran. …

“I think this would be a wonderful opportunity to meet a diverse group of people in a very neutral setting and everyone can decide, depending on their personal preference, where they want this to lead.”

“We hope to get people from different faith traditions and religious backgrounds together for deep conversation so that they might get to know and understand each other on new and different levels.” — Tim Krueger, a church prayer committee member who helped bring the event to town