How Kansas City’s World Cup scene evokes a cross-faith ‘Holy Land’ experience
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- Kansas City clergy and a former Star columnist led a multifaith visit.
- Delegation toured Bethlehem and Jerusalem with people from almost every continent.
- Gar Demo said the trip left him with a larger sense of faith and humanity.
Some years ago, Episcopal priest Gar Demo, Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn and former Star columnist Bill Tammeus led a visit to the Holy Land.
As Demo traveled with Cukierkorn of Temple Israel of Kansas City, he naturally understood they would share the experience with people of many faiths. But Demo, now in his 20th year at St. Thomas The Apostle Episcopal Church in Overland Park, still was awed by engaging in such a setting with people from almost every continent.
Touring Bethlehem, Jerusalem and elsewhere, he recalled encountering groups from Brazil, China, Egypt, Germany, Sudan and the United States.
For all their varying lenses, perspectives and reasons for being there, he was struck by what was held in common. He left feeling a larger sense of his faith, to be sure, but also what he called “a larger sense of humanity.”
It was a similar vibe to what he’d known as a kid playing soccer with children from Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam.
And that’s all been a part of the sensation he’s been feeling the last few weeks as Kansas City has been one of the 16 North American hosts for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
From the enormous energy of Fan Fest to the overwhelming atmosphere at the Netherlands-Tunisia match, Demo has felt connected with something larger than himself and beyond our own myopic views: the power of sheer humanity and unity prevailing over division.
“It felt like when we were in the Holy Land,” he said in a phone interview with The Star. “Except for, obviously, we’re not gathered around God.”
With a pause and a laugh, he added, “It depends on your viewpoint: Maybe soccer is God.”
All of which helps explain why Demo was planning his Sunday sermon to connect the World Cup, those experiences and the origins of the Abrahamic religions of Christianity, Islam and Judaism.
Because it’s an opportunity to reiterate shared roots and commonalities at a time, he said, we are witnessing that people “can be on opposite ends of who we’re rooting for and still see ourselves as being together.”
These themes of what binds us, instead of separates us, have reverberated throughout the World Cup in the Kansas City area, which has made the art of welcoming a likely enduring signature and legacy of these weeks.
‘The world as it should be’
That’s been evident in virtually every visible scene imaginable, from arrival at Kansas City International Airport to the KC Streetcar, from Fan Fest to “Kansas City Stadium” (Arrowhead), from casual bump-ins to hospitality in and around the four national-team base camps that were held in the area.
And that includes being a galvanizing force in and across a number of local houses of worship.
Certainly, it was at the very heart of the brilliant tale of Lawrence, Kansas, a state that as of 2020 had a Muslim population of 3,615. The all-out embrace of the Algerian national team basing there — during a time when U.S. immigration policies have been quite the opposite toward Muslims, Arabs and Africans — has been one of the most inspiring and revealing stories of the World Cup.
There are so many remarkable examples of what crossover has meant, but the most direct one I enjoyed was with an Algerian named Adam Zimmerman (his father is from Europe).
Speaking in the lobby of The Westin last week, Zimmerman said he’d been apprehensive about coming to the U.S. in the current political climate but gushed about how he’d been welcomed.
“This is what the World Cup is about,” he said. “It’s about different cultures, interacting, exchanging, learning.”
In part organically, in part because of the vital early efforts of KU faculty members Amal El Haimaur and Aya Fayed, as chronicled by KCUR — and with the support of the Islamic Center of Lawrence — those dynamics became something to be cherished.
So much so that it became part of Scott Chrostek’s June 28 sermon for Church Of The Resurrection, one of its series related to the World Cup. The central theme was the figurative — and literal — significance of passing the ball, including asking audience members to ponder what their passing game is like and the ramifications of being a ball hog.
But he also spoke to some of the manifestations of the question.
“It gives us a picture of the world as it should be,” Chrostek, the executive director of ministries and programs, said in the sermon. “A world where we welcome strangers, and we make them into friends by how it is we care for them (and) put their interests before our own.”
‘You’ll never walk alone’
It’s been a thriving theme all over an area that worked ahead of time to meet the moment. As Tammeus, who writes a “Faith Matters” blog, put it in a February piece for Flatland, “Many of the area’s faith communities … are making detailed plans to ensure that everyone has religious support while they’re here.”
Along with ways to animate the meaning of the World Cup.
In his June 19 sermon at the New Reform Temple in Kansas City, Rabbi David Levinsky used the tournament to make one point above all others.
“The world coming together for the World Cup reminds us that we should care about everyone,” he said in a phone message. “In the book of Jonah, God says, ‘Should I not care about Nineveh, that great city?’ God cares about everyone, and we should as well.”
In that spirit, his sermon alluded to the World Cup bringing “the world’s eyes to Kansas City. People from many nations fill our streets, reminding us that the sport has a remarkable ability to unite strangers.”
Reflecting on scenes of fans gathering at Country Club Plaza, he pointed to the tradition of Liverpool soccer fans marching to matches and just before kickoffs singing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” by Liverpool’s “other” band, Gerry and the Pacemakers.
“‘When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high … At the end of the storm, there’s a golden sky,’” he began, adding what he called the “unforgettable refrain: ‘Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart and you’ll never walk alone.’”
The hope, he added, life’s greatest challenges aren’t faced in isolation. Turning to the week’s Torah portion, he noted that “the same truth has been part of the Jewish tradition all along” but also applies broadly.
“Perhaps that’s why Liverpool’s anthem has become so beloved by their fans,” he said. “Together they sing a song that expresses a universal longing. ‘Walk on, walk on with the hope in your heart, and you’ll never walk alone.’
“It’s not just about soccer. It’s about being human. Every one of us needs people who remind us to keep going when we’ve lost our way.”
In a Facebook post as the tournament got underway, Michael Zedek, rabbi emeritus at Congregation B’nai Jehudah in Overland Park, stressed a similar notion.
“Perhaps you are part of World Cup madness, and it focuses on remarkably talented stars on the pitch,” he wrote. “I suspect you’ll not be surprised that a Rabbi has a nuanced take on the event. Specifically, at least for Western religious teachings, we are all filled with star power and infinite value. Not a bad reminder as the world focuses on scoring goals.
“The most important one is, of course, embracing the sacred and infinite value of every human being. Shabbat Shalom.”
‘With and for others’
The messages evoke some of the universal truths and elements expressed by Pope Leo XIV via social media on June 10.
“Soccer reminds us of something we must not forget: life is not a race to show off on our own, but a path we learn to walk together,” he wrote. “Anyone who does not know how to pass the ball, even if they have talent, has not yet understood the game. Anyone who does not know how to live with and for others has not yet understood life. #ApostolicJourney.”
This reflection of that was prayed last weekend at St. Paul Catholic Church in Olathe:
That sports, such as the World Cup, be an instrument of peace, encounter, and dialogue among cultures and nations, and that they promote values such as respect, solidarity, and personal growth: We pray to the Lord.
Obviously, each faith, and faiths within faiths, have their own distinct values, views and traditions.
No doubt many other religious institutions have seized on the World Cup with these and other emphases, including evangelizing and otherwise stressing their uniqueness.
As the World Cup itself has illuminated, though, we have much more in common than we don’t.
Something Demo has observed in his frequent engagements with other faith leaders at nearby Islamic centers and synagogues. In many ways, he finds they are praying for much the same things: peace, to be better people and to help the community at large.
“From my perspective, I don’t have any problem seeing that a lot of us are walking in the same direction or experiencing God in a lot of different ways,” said Demo, who counts Imam Sulaiman Salaam as a friend and has enjoyed attending local synagogues for High Holy Days. “I’m a Christian, because I grew up in a Christian family, I was mostly exposed to Christianity, and that’s what I’ve come to understand and (have) embraced as my faith.
“But I also know I have grown richly in my experiences that I’ve had in conversations with people from other faiths.”
As he did in the Holy Land, a moving site that for the time being, anyway, you can see from here.
This story was originally published July 10, 2026 at 12:55 PM with the headline "How Kansas City’s World Cup scene evokes a cross-faith ‘Holy Land’ experience."