Over 200 people kept the focus of Peace on Earth through chanting from 12 different faith traditions for 5 hours! The whole day was amazingly powerful and joyously uniting!
The day began with a prayer from each tradition and then the gong rang out and the chants began. We started with a Buddhist chant thanks to Ned and Cathy Robinson. We went into the Christian chant of Kyrie Eleison, Christe Eleison thanks to Pastor Rebecca Segers and The Presbyterian Church of Sweet Hollow. As that chant went on it was joined by the tablas from the Sikh group which was led by Rosey Kaur, thanks to the efforts of Rajinderjit K Singh.
Long Island Muslims sang out the Azan and Allah O Akhbar followed by Long Island Baha'is singing Blessed is the Spot, thanks Stacy Fagan! Our African chant was accompanied by 13 Long Island African American children led by Edwina Lee Taylor. They really rocked the house. Everyone was dancing.
Gathering of Light Multifaith Spiritual Fellowship led the Native American chant and filled in for a group that could not attend at the last minute. Our peace teachers the Long Island Jains led us in Arham and then the Gayatri Pariwar of Long Island led us in the Gayatri Mantra. Our wonderful banner was made by Ranjan Desai a member of this group! It looked so perfect.
Judism was represented by Akiva Wharton and Long Island Jews who sang out Psalm 121.
The afternoon culminated with Sufis from The Sufi Circle of Long Island Whirling and then getting all of us to join hands in a circle for zikir.
Followed by 10 Minutes of silence and we prayed:
From the deepest place of our hearts we call for Peace on Earth. Let there be Peace on Earth and let it begin with us. As we go from here let us be more mindful to be the peace we seek in the world.
We are grateful to all who participated. We look forward to seeing more participants and faith groups next year!
We would love comments from anyone who attended.....
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