On January 30, hundreds of people gathered at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Santa Monica, California for Peace Sunday, an annual event hosted by several URI Cooperation Circles (CCs) in partnership with other interfaith and social justice organizations. Peace Sunday gained public recognition in 1982, when as many as 100,000 people rallied at Los Angeles’s Rose Bowl in support of the second United Nations disarmament summit. This year’s observance—an afternoon of live music and reflections on “The Cost of War, the Price of Peace” by a diverse array of interfaith, religious and political leaders—heralded the start of another important UN event: the first annual World Interfaith Harmony Week, February 1-7.
Coming amidst a wave of religiously motivated violence across the Middle East and South Asia, from Iraq to Egypt to Pakistan, this inaugural UN-designated week is an opportunity for interfaith advocates, religious and government leaders, and people of all walks of life to celebrate the common ground they share as people of faith and conviction and take a stand against violence in the name of religion.
The Peace Sunday organizers are among dozens of URI Cooperation Circles planning activities to celebrate the moral ethics that bind the human community. URI’s Middle East and North Africa office in Jordan will be leading Muslim and Christian leaders on visits to a Mosque and a church in Amman to pray together for peace in the region; CCs in South India are hosting a religion quiz competition for students; CCs and regional leadership in the Philippines are hosting an interfaith festival of art and music; and the URI-UN office and URI UN CC are helping organize an interfaith breakfast for UN NGOs. URI activities are also taking place in India, Ethiopia, Malaysia, Morocco, Uganda, Palestine, Germany, Argentina, Spain, Egypt, Finland and more.
Click here to learn more about World Interfaith Harmony Week, access URI’s activity tool card, or read postings from CCs around the world.
