Kent State University’s Catholic Association has come up with a new way to get people of all ages to come together for a fun and healthy discussion, as well as a way to discuss God. The Newman Center will be holding “Soup and Scripture” every Wednesday at 5 p.m.

The event is an open invitation for anyone to come by for some religious analysis and free soup provided by the Parish. The event was planned and run by Jordan Cenderich, the Associate Director for Campus Ministry and Carmen Roebke, the Pastoral Associate for Christian Formation.

They held the first event Wednesday, Feb. 6 with an attendance of about 10 Kent State students and 10 older parishioners.

Both Roebke and Cinderich said the goal of the event is to “bring students and older parishioners together in a way that wasn’t Sunday mass.” They said they want younger people and adults to have a meeting ground where they could promote community and God.

Plenty of food was served as attendees sat around a table with soup, salad, bread and water. Grace was said and the conversation started with everyone around the table introducing themselves. Then the plan for the day and the semester was laid out. Come to the hall at the Newman Center, eat food and discuss the Bible and Catholicism.

As they sat around the table, ate their food, and started discussing the catholic religion, Roebke said it “echoed the Eucharistic celebration.”

Cinderich and Roebke wanted to have a specific topic to focus on for the semester that would form what they talk about every week. They decided the focus would be on the Mother Mary. Nobody in the room was on their cell phone, because nobody felt the need. You could tell by body language and the engaged comments that everybody there was fully tuned into the conversation

Cinderich said, “Mary is a perfect example for people to look up to from our time because she reflects a lot of the problems we have in society today. Mary was poor, a refugee/immigrant, and was running from political oppression.”

The ministry was very pleased with the turnout and flow of the event. Roebke said that they have plans to go every Wednesday until Ash Wednesday, and due to the holiday they will not hold soup and scripture that week but will be back every week after if it continues.

“We are very excited so many people were here,” Roebke said. “We are just trying to provide real authentic experiences for everybody and if it continues like this then we will keep this going and going.”

Cole King covers Religion. Contact him at [email protected]