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Prayer Peace & Unity Sharing services, prayers and fellowship with people of other faiths has become standard form at local religious community gatherings as well as national political events, a way to express solidarity and tolerance in this time of terrorism.
Members of different faiths come
together to share a message of
embracing love in a time of warBy Mary Adamski
madamski@starbulletin.comThe simple prayer and candle-lighting service Wednesday night at Honpa Hong- wanji Mission in Honolulu again marshaled the spectrum of speakers from Buddhist, Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Bahai faiths. But a new element was added in the "Interfaith Service of Reflection on Unity, Peace with Justice, and Compassion."
Actually it was an old element, reminiscent of the 1960s when some people began to demonstrate for peace and against the Vietnam War.
"We call on people of faith to stop blessing war," said Kyle Kajihiro of the American Friends Service Committee.
He said the gathering was planned by the Hawaii Interfaith Call for Peace, a group loosely organized to "express our concern about the violence of war." The group also will work against "the economic violence which is poverty."
He said that the number of deaths in the U.S. military operation in Afghanistan now nearly equals the deaths in the World Trade Center Sept. 11.
Peace and understanding were the thread of prayers offered at the service attended by about 100 people. Kajihiro said it was timed as a three-month anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks and as an observance of "a holy time" shared by Hawaiians celebrating makahiki, Jews celebrating Hanukkah, Muslims ending Ramadan and Christians anticipating Christmas.
"Let one's thoughts of boundless love pervade the whole world -- above, below and across -- without any obstruction, without any hatred, without enmity" were words from the Buddhist Metta Sutta read by the Rev. Reynold Fujikawa.
Eve Shere of Temple Emanu-El read a prayer by 20th-century rabbinic scholar Jack Reimer: "We cannot only pray to you, O God, to end war, for we know that you have made the world in such a way that we must find the path to peace within ourselves and within our neighbors.
"We cannot only pray to you, O God, to root out prejudice, for you have already given us eyes with which to see the good in all people if we could only use them rightly. Therefore we pray to you instead, O God, for strength, determination and willpower to do, instead of only to pray."
St. Francis of Assisi's peace prayer was read by June Naughton: "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, let me sow pardon."
Ku'umeaaloha Gomes told the crowd about the Hawaiian tradition of makahiki. "This is a time when we lay down our labor, a time when fighting stops, a time to reach out to each other."
"Let all peace-loving people around the world take a bold, visible and united stand ... that proclaims that all of us are children of the same God," said Muslim Saleem Ahmed.
"Rather than continuing to create a division among ourselves on the basis of our respective messengers, let us unite on the basis of the message they all bring."
Bahai member Don Child read: "O thou kind Lord! Unite all. Let the religions agree and make the nations one, so that they may see each other as one family and the whole earth as one home."
Kajihiro said the interfaith community will reconvene to continue praying for peace in mid-January at the Waikiki statue of Mahatma Gandhi, who perfected the technique of nonviolent resistance while leading the fight for independence in India.
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