Faith-based groups in Central Arkansas are coming together for a night of connection Thursday.
The Interfaith Center in Little Rock and the Arkansas House of Prayer are hosting “Love Thy Neighbor: Be Still Together” at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church in Little Rock. Interfaith Center Executive director Patricia Matthews said the annual event will bring together congregations from across Central Arkansas in worship.
She said anyone interested in building community is invited.
“Anyone who is a little bit concerned about the world right now, maybe feels a little bit helpless in the face of what they hear on the news, maybe feels like they want to get a good shot of hope in the arm, those are the people that should come,” said Matthews.
“Love Thy Neighbor” begins at 6 p.m. Thursday, September 11, at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church in Little Rock, 1000 N. Mississippi St. It’s one of the Interfaith Center’s flagship events.
Matthews says it was started in 2012 by the center’s founder, Sophia Saeed, whose high school-aged kids were bullied for being Muslim after the anniversary of 9/11.
“And so she started doing all this interfaith work and realized that we just need to get people together in the same room to try to be kind and loving toward each other,” Matthews said. “So we developed 'Love Thy Neighbor' as a way to counteract the hatred that came out of 9/11 especially towards Muslims, but then to bind all people together to make a kinder, nicer, and more safe and secure Little Rock.”
Matthews says the hour-long program will feature calls to worship from leaders of five different faiths. They’ll include the Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist traditions. UA Little Rock Professor and author Rebecca Glazier will give the keynote speech.
"You’ll hear choirs from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Unitarian Universalists, and Congregation B’nai Israel, as well as kids from our friendship camp. You’ll see a Hindu sacred dance, and then the Bahá'ís will send us out with a glorious sendoff. You'll get to see all kinds of little pieces of people's faith and culture and it’s really interesting and really heartwarming.”
Matthews hopes people leave with a sense of connection to one another, regardless of belief. She shared a favorite memory from the service in 2024.
“Someone came up to me afterwards — this was a Muslim man — and he had been, validly, very heartbroken over what had happened in the last year over in Gaza,” Matthews said. “And he said ‘tonight was the first night in a long time that my soul felt like it had been cleansed and was washed and was ready to go back out into the world.’”
Matthews said the event fills her with a renewed sense of community each year.
“You walk out feeling like… everything’s possible, and that we really can change the world through our friendships,” she said. “We might not be able to change international politics but we can be the peacemakers here in Little Rock that we would hope people would be everywhere. And that actually makes the world a much better place.”
Matthews said she thinks knowing people from other faiths is an essential part of building community.
“When we know somebody from another faith, we know a little bit about their faith, we just see that entire faith tradition more positively.”
“I think it’s what humanity is supposed to be, kind and loving and all together in one place.”
A livestream of the event will also be available online.
