by Dennis Dalman
Organizers hope to highlight cultural and religious similarities, to understand differences and to expose misconceptions between Christians and Muslims in a five-part education course set for First United Methodist Church in Sartell.
The name of the five-week program is My Neighbor is Muslim.
The first session is set for 6-8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 2 at First United Methodist and will take place during that same time block in each of the following Mondays, through Oct. 30.
Teachers of the program are the Rev. Leah Rosso of First United Methodist and Ayan Oman, who teaches language arts at Tech High School in St. Cloud.
“The class is designed to engage people in learning more about what Islam is all about and how that is similar or different from Christianity,” Rosso said. “We will focus on topics like what is the foundation of each faith, what does each faith believe about Jesus and what is some of the misleading information out there that we can navigate together. We want as many people as possible from our community to come share in the conversation.”
The curriculum for the five-week series was developed by Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota.
To register for the series, go to www.fumcscr.org
First United Methodist Church is located at 1107 Pinecone Road S. in Sartell.