Sally Carlson, a deacon at St. Luke’s Episcopal church, says she’s in the business of feeding the stomachs, hearts and minds of the people she meets.

And after the recent election and the political climate, she’s determined to feed her people with interfaith conversations.

Starting March 8, St. Luke’s will host a month-long series about interfaith dialogues. The dialogues aims to “provide a safe space to listen to and learn from leaders and people of other spiritual/faith traditions.” Each Wednesday evening, a speaker from various faith backgrounds will present their stories and lead attendees in a time of discussion and contemplation.

“[This series] is an opportunity to talk about what’s going on in our world now, not just politically but globally,” Carlson said. “We want to explore conversations on an interfaith level in a broad way so that the community can also be involved in this. So the people in Renton can tell what’s going on.”

The series kicks off with Muslim speaker Jamal Rahman on March 8, and is followed by Arabic and Kurdish interpreter Faiza Sultan, Christian pastor Terry Kyllo and Episcopal priest turned Muslim Ann Holmes Redding.

According to Kevin Pearson, rector at St. Luke’s, these dialogues reflect the heart and DNA of the church.

“We’re people of faith,” Pearson said. “The Judeo-Christian tradition has a very strong emphasis on welcoming the neighbor and making a place for the alien and the other. Our world and community is changing in such a way that our neighbors are different from us. We respect that. We honor other faith traditions and seek to understand better who they are so we can support them. We see strangers as friends, as Jesus saw.”

The Episcopal church hasn’t shied away from voicing their opinion on the current political climate. The Episcopal Diocese of Olympia recently filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court against President Donald Trump’s travel ban. The suit reads, “Plaintiff the Episcopal Diocese brings its claims based on the Executive Order’s harm to its own mission activities, as well as the Order’s harm to the refugees served by the Diocese, thereby shielding those vulnerable refugee individuals from the retaliation they reasonably fear if they were to assert their claims directly.”

For St. Luke’s, the change starts in the small step of opening their doors, and inviting the community to listen and converse.

“We need to have more conversations,” said Pearson. “We need to reach out to people who look different. We need to melding hearts and not just be thinking.”

Calrson said that the series is not measured by the number of people that come, but by the quality of the conversations that happen and the feeding of the mind and soul.

“If we can just have one or two people out of whoever comes say ‘Oh my, there is a different perspective, I’m glad I heard this this evening,’ I think that would be a success,” she said.

These dialoges may make people feel unfomrtable at first, but Carlson said that’s an essential first step.

“Church isn’t just to make someone feel comfortable,” she said. “We can come to be comforted, but not feel comfortable. Complacency is not our gig.”

The interfaith dialogue series starts 7 p.m., March 8 at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 99 Wells Ave. S. There will a vesper mass at 6 p.m. and a soup dinner at 6:30 p.m. The series will continue every Wednesday until March 29. For more information, visit http://stlukesrenton.org/.