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URI CELEBRATES INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE—2005 |
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Written by URI Cooperation Circles
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Thursday, 06 October 2005 |
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Page 5 of 20
Amenia, New York, USA. Charles Gibbs. World Peace Festival:
September 17 and 18 I was in Amenia, NY for a wonderful peace festival hosted by the World Peace Prayer Society under the leadership of their director, Deborah Moldow, who is also a URI Global Council Trustee and convener of the URI UN CC. Though the attendance wasn’t as great as they had hoped, the festival was a powerful experience that supported people’s deep yearning for peace that rises from within each of us and is manifested through our lives and our communities.
One highlight was an interfaith ceremony offering prayers for peace from many different traditions. The ceremony was all the more meaningful because it was organized by Betsy Stang, an extraordinary activist who served on URI’s Interim Global Council and is a leader in the Mid-Hudson Valley CC. Betsy continues her struggle with cancer, buoyed by the prayers and meditation of the URI community around the world.
I find that these days whenever I am asked to offer a prayer or to speak I begin, as I have for years, by extending greetings of love and peace from the URI community around the world. Then I ask people to be mindful of the gift of life and to experience a deep gratitude for the miracle and mystery of each breath we take, which connects us with all live on this Earth. I ask people to experience gratitude that we are able to gather in safety in a world where so many live each day in fear; to gather in the midst of abundance when so many live each day hungry. And I ask people to invite into our midst our sisters and brothers all over the world who may live in fear or hunger that they may join us in a time of rest and renewal and that we may join them in a deeper commitment to work for a world where all can live lives free from fear about their survival and free from hunger.
The other highlight of the day was the World Peace Prayer Ceremony, which began with a stirring message by Masami Saionji, Chair of the World Peace Prayer Society, who invited all present to live into the fullness of their divine nature as lights of peace. Following her inspiring remarks, the flags of 191 nations and of communities of identity, such as Tibet and Palestine and the native peoples of North America, which are not formally recognized as nations, were paraded as those gathered prayed that the people of each nation live in peace and that peace prevail on Earth. The ceremony was deeply moving and is, I believe, a critically important tool in helping to create a global consciousness for peace.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 15 February 2006 )
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