CLEVELAND HEIGHTS — With election day fast approaching, Fairmount Presbyterian Church in Cleveland Heights is opening its church for its first Strangers No Club event.

The free event, which includes live music, poetry, herbal tea, a reading room, connection games and more, will take place from 6 to 9 p.m. on the eve of Election Day, Monday, November 4.

Pastor Ryan Wallace and Kate Bouldin, director of faith formation for youth and young adults, are part of the team organizing the meeting.

They said it was intended to help people disconnect from their cell phones, social media and the 24-hour news cycle to talk face to face and get to know each other.

“This felt especially meaningful during this election season, when our country is more polarized than ever,” Bouldin said. “This is the idea that the work of justice, the work of connecting with each other and better understanding each other’s politics, is done primarily through relationships.”

Bouldin described this as “de-alienating” others who may be different from you.

“Trying to view another person as your neighbor rather than a stranger to better understand their perspective and beliefs, even if they are truly different from yours,” Bouldin said.

A number of featured artists are participating, including Kevin Monaco, Isaiah Hunt and Emergence Ensemble.

Various areas of the church will be set up for social activities. Pastor Ryan Wallace said there will also be quiet areas for people to pray, meditate and read.

“Part of the message we want to send is that no matter what happens on Election Day and in the days and weeks and months we are neighbors, we need to know each other, care for each other,” Wallace said. And I say again, no matter what changes, this will not change.”

The church does community outreach efforts to attract large numbers of people to the event who are not affiliated with their church.

“We hope this will be the beginning of many Stranger No Club meetings and kind of a grassroots movement in our community that will invest in relationships with each other,” Wallace said.