A picnic in June was the first personal meeting of the daughters of Abraham since February 2020.
ARLINGTON, Texas – Janice Harris Lord always believed that the more time you spend with someone, the more you have in common.
And the more similarities are found, the easier it is to build a friendship.
The time together while eating is even better.
Lord burst into tears as she watched friends nearly 20 years old come to a long-awaited picnic on Lake Arlington.
All brought food, wore smiles, and opened their hearts and arms to hugs.
“I thought we might have some today who wanted to mask and distance themselves, but everyone is just so ready,” said Lord. “Ready for real relationships again.”
After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Lord longed to do something to build bridges. She is a Christian and felt that she could learn a lot from other faiths.
So she invited Jewish and Muslim women for a casual meeting with some Christian women.
Almost two decades later, their interfaith experiment has grown into a well-organized group called the Daughters of Abraham.
There are several chapters in North Texas and beyond.
A global pandemic threatened to paralyze it, but it didn’t.
Abraham’s daughters moved their meetings to Zoom and taught even their oldest members to use the platform.
“Our participation has not diminished. We had a good 30 people on each zoom, ”said Lord.
They could only see each other virtually as a chaotic year unfolded around them – COVID, social justice protests, a polarizing election, a riot, and rockets flying in the Middle East.
It was enough to test the faith of many Americans.
But it never tested their interfaith friendships – they grew stronger despite the distance.
“That is so much of what the daughters of Abraham are, that is what the religions have in common,” said Jean Humphreys of Arlington. “Not the differences.”
At the picnic in June – the daughters’ first face-to-face meeting in 16 months – sat across from Humphreys Nadia Rayan from Fort Worth.
The group laughed and ate casseroles and Bundt cakes, and shared recipes from their religious communities.
Rayan said it was hard to describe what it felt like to finally see her Christian and Jewish friends in person.
“I’m so happy to see everyone,” she said. “A feeling that I can’t really explain.”
The world has changed in 16 months, but the Lord said the foundations of daughters of Abraham had not changed.
“We never, never forego our very strong belief that peace can come. It can come, ”she said.
“If we can do this for 20 years and still get along and still love each other and have no arguments, peace is possible.”