Carmel Interfaith Alliance President Jerry Zehr has found a new way to introduce the public to different faiths.
The group will present “Meet Your Neighbor” each Tuesday in October with a different religion being featured each week. Zehr will facilitate at each of the five sessions.
“It’s a time to learn some things about the different faith traditions,” said Zehr, Carmel Christian Church pastor. “Then we’ll give an opportunity for questions and answers. The speaker will give some background about some of the basic tenets of the faith.”
The “Meet Your Neighbor” sessions will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Panera Bread, 1346 S. Range Line Rd., Carmel. Zehr said guests can get coffee or dessert while they gather at tables. All the speakers are part of the Carmel Interfaith Alliance. The free series leads off Oct. 3 with K.P. Singh speaking about the Sikh religion. Singh owns K.P. Singh Designs, which features drawings of architectural landmarks from Indiana and around the world.
“We do have Sikhs living here in Carmel,” Zehr said.
The second speaker will be Muzaffar Ahmad discussing Islam.
“I love to ask Muzaffar Ahmad some misconceptions about Islam,” Zehr said. “It’s amazing that some people think Muslims are all terrorists and are all part of ISIS. Crazy stuff.”
Zehr said Carmel Mayor Jim Brainard was instrumental in helping get the group started two years ago.
“The last event we did was the evolving role of women in our faith traditions,” Zehr said. “We had different women from Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and we had 80 people come for that event.”
Meet Your Neighbor speakers
- Oct. 3: Sikh religion with K.P. Singh
- Oct. 10 : Islam with Muzaffar Ahmad
- Oct. 17: Judaism with Rabbi Dennis Sasso
- Oct. 24: Hinduism with Raju Chinthala
- Oct. 31: Church of the Latter-Day Saints, Mormon with Jeff Jensen
