Saturday, March 19 – Queen of Peace High School

More in Common Than You Might Think:
Christians, Muslims and Jews

photos: First Light Creative

During the COR Conference at Queen of Peace High School , storytellers Sue O’Halloran, Gerry Fierst and Arif Choudhury led student and adult participants through a series of activities and stories that challenged current beliefs and stereotypes about religious differences.

The day began with prayer. Sue O’Halloran then lead participants through an exercise designed to challenge their assumptions about religions other than their own. Each student received a photo of a person dressed in different religious attire and wrote down their assumptions. A discussion ensued that revealed the true story of each person in the photos.

Participants then broke into small groups and engaged in conversation about their religious and ethnic heritage. They also participated in an activity that had them share problems they had faced as a result of their religion and work together to create solutions.

Following a short break the storytellers performed a show focused on their personal experience with their own religions. Gerry told about his experience growing up in a Jewish neighborhood in New Jersey and his struggles and fears about what it means to be a Jew in America. He also talked about his experience as a child encountering Orthodox Jews and having his faith questioned. Arif shared his story of growing up in the northern suburbs of Chicago as one of the only Muslims, finding it impossible to find a place to worship until the eventual building of a Mosque. He also talked about the assumptions that are made of him because he is a Muslim and Bangladeshi-American. In her story, Sue talked about growing up in a very Catholic neighborhood of Chicago and her experience with meeting “the other”. One memorable excerpt explored her experiences as a high school student meeting Catholic African-American students and discovering how differently they celebrated their faith.

After lunch the storytellers took some time to answer questions. Participants then engaged in further discussion of perception lead by Sue O’Halloran. Students were asked to look at pictures that could be viewed in a number of ways and were challenged to view them differently; this demonstrated how perception impacts our thoughts.

The day ended with small groups creating a poem to share in a closing prayer service. One hundred and five students and adults representing eight archdiocesan High Schools and the Universal School (a high school for Muslim students) were present.

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