It sounds like the start of a good story: “a Muslim, a Jew, an Evangelical, and a Unitarian walk into a restaurant…”

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And it is a good story. In 2015 the clerical leaders of three north Texas congregations, Trinity Fellowship Church, the Islamic Association of North Texas, and First Unitarian Church of Dallas, met together to discuss creating a different type of dialogue among their congregations. The three clerics had become personal friends and, through many shared lunches and coffees had come to appreciate their common interests as well as their substantial theological differences. How, they wondered, could they create the same opportunity for members of their congregations to get to know each other, not superficially, or through some one-time ecumenical event, but personally and authentically, through the development of real, lasting friendships? They thought back about their own personal relationships: the many meals and discussions. That gave them an idea.

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In 2016, that idea became Friends For Good.

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And in 2018, after two successful years, a Jewish Reformed congregation, Temple Shalom, joined this innovative new initiative as its fourth congregation.