Community members gathered in the University Student Center’s Grand Ballroom on Thursday night to celebrate GW’s annual Interfaith Dinner as part of a week of programming dedicated to the “pursuit of peace” between faiths, according to Dean of Students Colette Coleman.   

Upwards of 10 round tables were filled in the ballroom to discuss the importance of forming connections between faiths and acknowledging people’s cultural differences. The Interfaith Dinner is an annual event that brings together religious leaders, students and other GW community members to discuss matters that affect a variety of faiths.

The Interfaith Council of Metropolitan Washington dispersed a faith practitioner at each table to facilitate conversation — they represented Muslim, Baha’i, spiritual but not religious, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Hindu, Sikh and Protestant religions. 

Coleman, on behalf of University President Ellen Granberg, said the new center serves as a “catalyst” for further meaningful dialogue between various faith backgrounds. She said participation in events, like the Interfaith Dinner, is essential for creating opportunities in interfaith engagement on a campus that has both devout and nonreligious community members. 

“During this evening’s meal, I hope you will have the opportunity to forge new connections across the full breadth of this community,” Coleman said.

Coleman then welcomed the Center for Interfaith and Spiritual Life Director Simran Kaur-Colbert and University Chaplain Kristen Glass Perez, who were appointed to lead the CISL in October. 

“It is really refreshing to have both Kristen and Simran here, new to the GW community and yet not new to building community and not new to infusing faith throughout community,” Coleman said.

Glass Perez said everyone is connected by a “thread” both physically and spiritually and spoke about the importance of having gratitude and giving back to the community. She said it is “radical” for everyone to have gathered for the dinner, which she pointed out was a one of a kind experience that has never happened in that exact fashion with those exact people before. 

“So please know that, as you are here tonight, you are doing a remarkable thing,” Glass Perez said. “The radical act is gathering together.”

Allene David, a Columbian College of Arts & Sciences First-Year Experience instructor, said she attended the dinner to improve her understanding of people’s differences in order to provide a support system for her students. 

“That necessity of being open and being aware of our differences, I feel like I already am, but  I can never learn too much,” David said. “But I’m always looking for ways to interact better with people, especially our young people, I feel like they carry so much weight.”

David said she attended other Interfaith Week programming and that the community setting of the dinner was similar to the experience she had growing up with her church. She said for a long time people had been talking less about their faith but as communities began speaking more openly about mental health, they were able to talk about their spirituality more freely. 

“I think we’re now in spaces that people are feeling more comfortable about having conversations about how they worship,” she said.

Oscar Rios, a second-year graduate student studying Latin American and hemispheric studies, said he wanted to attend the event as a commitment to his friend, who served on the Interfaith Council and inspired him to attend the dinner. He said the Newman Center provides him a sense of community for his Catholic faith, which gets him out of his “bubble.”

“I feel like the Interfaith Center at GW is a great opportunity for me to get out there and connect,” Rios said.