Breaking Bread Together and Promoting Dialogue Between the Two Faiths

On Thursday July 2nd, Orange County chapter of Pacifica Institute had the pleasure of co-hosting an Iftar dinner with University United Methodist Church in Irvine with the aim of breaking bread together and promoting dialogue between the two faiths. The church congregation welcomed Pacifica members with big smiles and warm hearts. Conversations started right away as if both parties were long lost friends. Everyone was so immersed in conversation, Lead Pastor Paige Eaves had to wait awhile for everyone to be seated.

Pastor Paige began the evening with welcoming Pacifica members and touched upon the importance of coming together and learning from each other.

After Pastor Paige’s wonderful remarks, a Pacifica volunteer gave a short speech on the significance of the month of Ramadan for Muslims around the world. A short video on Ramadan was also projected to elucidate some terminology associated with Ramadan and further illustrate the importance and meaning of Ramadan.

With the end of the video, the sun was about to set so everyone was invited to help themselves to the food prepared and brought by Pacifica volunteers. Being the gracious and understanding of hosts the church congregation offered those who had been fasting all day to go ahead first. The delicious meal and warm conversations were followed by delightful dessert prepared by the Church congregation.

At the end of the night, Pastor Paige was kind enough to offer her guests a tour of the Church which included all five buildings. She mentioned the history of the Church as well as highlighting the different services they have, including Japanese and Korean. Pastor Paige emphasized how they shared their space with others and graciously offered space for Pacifica members to pray there also.

This was the first of hopefully many more joint events and dinners between University United Methodist Church and Pacifica Institute. In fact, both organizations are hoping to make Iftar dinners an annual tradition to build on the newly formed friendships.