Originally posted on NonProphet Status, the blog of atheist interfaith activist Chris Stedman.
Today’s guest post comes from Abigail Clauhs, a sophomore at Boston University who is studying religion and who runs the Boston University Interfaith Council. Below, she shares her experiences working to plan HUNGERally (more info here, here and here).
There is something nerve-wracking about meeting someone for the first time in a coffee shop. You get there first, five minutes before the agreed-upon time by virtue of your unbreakable habit of punctuality. You stand by the door, pull out your phone to look busy. Eyeing the menu, you wonder if you should go ahead and order the rooibos latte or if it would be rude to already get a drink. With every person that walks in, you wonder if it is the one you’ve only spoken to on the phone or via email. There is the awkward eye contact dance where you look to see if that person is looking for someone, too, and if you both are–relieved smiles and, finally, introductions.
I did that a lot last semester. Networking meetings, not blind dates. Just beginning my work with the Boston University Interfaith Council, I wanted to meet the leaders of interfaith programs at other colleges in Boston. And so, through a series of emails and calls, I got to know the interiors of a myriad of Boston coffee shops and people from MIT, Suffolk, and other universities.
The first time I met Chris Stedman was in a Starbucks in November of 2011. Chris, the Interfaith and Community Service Fellow for the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard University, was a major interfaith activist, and I was a little starstruck. However, we found ourselves soon fervently talking about interfaith work and the importance of service. That, in a way, was where the idea of HUNGERally was born. Of course, we has many meetings after that–and even more conference calls–but the event that happened on February 11, 2012, began right there.