Chichester Quakers host interfaith prayer service
'This was a powerful occasion, at which spells of contemplative silence were broken by readings and prayers from the heart.'
Chichester Friends hosted an interfaith prayer service for world peace this month. Around fifty people from numerous faiths (and no faith) and denominations met to witness for peace through prayers, readings and poems at the event on 11 October.
Chichester Friends said: ‘As far as we are aware this is a first for Chichester. The evening began and ended with glorious and moving music from the Volya Choir, a group of Ukrainian women… People wept. No one in the room can have wished for peace more than the Volyas, or the Bahá’í originally from Iran. This was a powerful occasion, at which spells of contemplative silence were broken by readings and prayers from the heart. It was not the power of the tank or machine gun, but that of simple togetherness and hope.’
‘The Church of the Latter Day Saints put it well,’ they added. ‘Each citizen furthers the cause of peace when he or she keeps the commandments of God and lives at peace with family and neighbours. Such citizens are living the prayer expressed in the words of the popular song “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me”.
‘These times seem dark but the vast majority of people throughout the world live peacefully together. We must hope that such a peace can spread even further.’
As well as Quakers, attendees included: ‘Moslems, a Catholic, a Bahá’í, the Church of Latter day Saints, the abbot of Chithurst’s Buddhist Monastery, the United Reformed Church, a Unitarian, and more whose identity we do not know.’
A Quaker at the event quoted Isaiah: ‘There is to be a time when “nation shall not lift up a sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more.”’
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