Meeting new people can be a scary experience for anyone. Each year when the school year begins, even the extroverted children are nervous to meet their new classmates. Adults experience the same emotions at work when a new employee joins the team—because life is changing and this change makes life unknown and uncertain. Questions flood our minds: how will this new person change our team dynamic? Will they like me? How will we relate? How will they fit in? How will I fit in now that things are different? These are just a few of the feelings we experience meeting someone new from our same culture, and these same fears can ring even louder when the new person we are meeting comes from a different religion, country, and/or culture. 

Just about three months ago, I moved across the country to Aurora, CO (a suburb of Denver). My husband’s extended family lives in the area, who are still relatively new relationships for me, and everyone else we meet is new too. After two weeks of settling in, I decided to go on a hike. I had a free day and went out by myself. I am an extrovert who still enjoys my alone time to process and reflect, but this day I originally had hoped to hike with someone. I was feeling alone in a new place but was met by a blessed surprise, an interfaith surprise actually.

The Royal Arch Trail sits beside the famous Flatirons at Chautauqua Park in Boulder, CO. It takes a mile or so before arriving at the Royal Arch trailhead, and once there, I stopped for a few minutes to take in the map. As I studied the routes, three fellow hikers, one carrying a baby boy, walked up to find the right directions also. I asked the woman right beside me, “where are you all going?” They planned to hike the Royal Arch Trail too, so we discussed the map together. I joked, “well I guess I am following you.” 

A conversation emerged naturally. We talked about our various kinds of work, where we moved from, acclimating to Colorado life, and religion. As we talked, these three hikers (and their baby boy) invited me to hike along with them the rest of the way, which turned into a two hour excursion with new friends, a blessing in itself. The even larger blessing was the depth of dialogue and cultural exchange as I made new friends. My fellow hikers were all Muslim international students working on their PhDs in aerospace engineering. The couple and their baby came from Nigeria, and the other man came from Egypt. 

Typically, when I tell people that I work with Interfaith Photovoice, people respond with something like, “I have never heard of that before… Interfaith Photo…Voice?” This was the same question my new friends asked me. As I began explaining our work, I referenced different kinds of photos. For example, Muslims might take a photo of ablution, the act of washing one’s extremities before daily prayers. Christians might take a photo of communion, the sacrament of drinking wine and eating bread in remembrance of Jesus’ death. Many different faiths take photos of nature or various forms of prayer. The photographs tell a story, and many people find themselves in the stories of others or feeling empathy for a story they did not understand before. After sharing about our work, our conversation could have returned to surface-level topics—acclimating to altitude and weather here in Denver, describing favorite restaurants to eat at, and discussing other local trails we are looking forward to hiking. We did in fact discuss these topics, but our main focus of conversation actually centered around religion.

In our hiking journey we did not share photos about our faith in everyday life or photos about hopes we have for change in our communities, but we had deep and meaningful religious dialogue similar to many conversations I have had in Interfaith Photovoice meetings. And the conversation flowed naturally because of their interest in my work and religious practice and my interest in their lives here in America as immigrants and a religious minority. Photovoice gave me tools to easily dialogue across cultures and religions with strangers, tools (types of questions, ways of listening, religious and cultural knowledge beyond my individual lived experience) that I did not even realize I was using in my moments of hiking with my new friends. Everyone’s story is different, but I have formed real relationships with other Muslims and know the personal stories and beliefs of those in my circle through Interfaith Photovoice, so I could ask questions pertaining to my new friends’ real lives and cultural experiences. Photovoice is structured in a way to teach people how to ask constructive questions and listen with openness for change to form relationships across differences, which gives people the tools so that cultural exchanges like this can be normal and everyday. 

Photovoice has also taught me so much about what love can look like across differences. We understand that various religions have different beliefs, but our method accepts those differences while attuning to shared beliefs, practices, and values. We are able to see each other and how we are similar better through sharing our stories and photographs creating space for people of different religions, races, and cultures to develop relationships despite those differences. My photovoice experiences have shown me so many ways that I as a Christian share the same or similar ethical values with Muslims. When we form relationships around these similarities, it becomes a lot easier to discuss differences. 

I had a long conversation with the man from Egypt about similarities and differences between Islam and Christianity. He asked me questions about what Christians believe morally about drinking alcohol, divorce, and obedience to God, and we agreed on most ethics around these topics. We also discussed our understandings of creation, justice, and human flourishing. He asked a number of questions about Christian views on the second coming of Jesus and shared how he understands Islam to be different, but this was towards the end of the conversation after we had discussed a number of shared values. And I can personally say that sharing our difference of beliefs was meaningful and challenged me to evaluate how I understand the world much more deeply. It also helped me put myself in the shoes of my new friend to have a deeper understanding of what matters most to him. Discussing our differences brought us together, not apart—because we challenged each other to look at ourselves and to see each other’s deepest values.

As we parted ways, I felt enlivened and refreshed. I left feeling close to these new Muslim friends because our dialogue was real and honest and also respectful and mutual. I felt we had all offered value to one another and deepened our understanding of what matters most to each of us. My hope is for this kind of interreligious dialogue to become normal for everyone so that anybody can have interactions like this in everyday life.