First “Love Your Neighbor” event held in State College

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (WTAJ) — “Love your neighbor” is the message leaders and community members shared Sunday at Sidney Friedman Park in State College.

“I just wanted to hear how we can make our community better. There is no community that is perfect. There is no community that has all the answers, but we felt like we should come together and talk about our problems or who we are as people,” said Mitch Smith, pastor of Christ Community Church.

The event, hosted by Christ Community Church, was a community gathering to celebrate the commonalities of people of different faiths.

People from Jewish, Muslim and Christian backgrounds shared their views on how we can live in unity and love one another.

“We can have differences of opinion, right? We can have all these problems. But with love we come back together. What do we have without love? We really have nothing,” said Sel Edor, a community member.

Around 150 people attended the event, which began at 2 p.m.

“I think today’s event is so important and it’s obviously the first time that an event like this has been held, I believe, in State College. Just to show that the majority of people in State College really want community and unity and want to come together and love their neighbor and learn how to love their neighbor,” said Nosson Meretsky, rabbi of Chabad of Penn State.

Christ Community Church is not sure when the next Love Thy Neighbor event will be, but hopes this will inspire others to start such an event in their own community.