Last Thursday, Interfaith Ministries and Rice University's Boniak Center sponsored the third annual Amazing Faiths Dinner. For a couple of hours, the participants from many different faith traditions shared a meal and their feelings about their faith. While many differences were apparent, most found by the end of the evening that they shared more in common with their dinner partners than they expected at the beginning of the evening. Many new friends were made, many new bridges built.

The first Amazing Faiths Dinner took place in 2006 when roughly 200 Houstonians gathered in about a dozen homes. This year, almost 2,000 people in 10 cities gathered to share a meal with others of different faiths. It is expected that the number will be 5,000-10,000 next year with another 10 cities participating.

I do not think that it is a coincidence that the Amazing Faiths Dinner project started in Houston. Rice University Professor Steven Kleinberg has declared that Houston is the most diverse city in the United States. Further, Houston has dedicated itself not only to tolerating this diversity, but valuing and celebrating it. The Amazing Faiths Dinner is part of that ongoing celebration, one that we are now sharing with the rest of the world. I can think of no greater tribute to this City.

I hope that you will consider becoming involved with this remarkable movement. I can assure you that you will come away with two things. First, you will make new friends that you would have otherwise never known. Second, you leave the experience with a renewed optimism for our future and a renewed faith in the fundamental goodness of people. It is an evening well spent.

You can learn more about the Amazing Faiths Dinner project at http://www.amazingfaithsproject.org/index.php. It will be time well invested.