What if – for one day – your city, town or region could be free from violence?
On Sept. 21, the International Day of Peace, the Fellowship of Reconciliation and Global Days of Listening will ask people throughout the United States to imagine – and pray for – a day without violence in their communities.
“Peace Day: Praying for Ceasefire” is a series of community-wide events that asks participants to pray for twenty-four hours free from killings, shootings, domestic violence and malicious speech. The events will be co-sponsored by On Earth Peace, the religious peace fellowship of the Church of the Brethren.
The Fellowship of Reconciliation is the largest, oldest interfaith peace organization in the United States. Most recently, the Fellowship has devoted its efforts to demilitarizing life and land, advocating on the part of Colombian peace communities facing state and paramilitary violence, sponsoring the cross-country Caravan for Peace against the flow of U.S. guns into Mexico and working to confront the epidemic of gun violence in the United States.
Global Days of Listening is a project that allows participants to regularly listen to and talk with residents of war-torn countries, such as Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Libya and Palestine, about their experience and their desire to live in peace. The program schedules call-in events on the 21st of each month, including the International Day of Peace.
The “Praying for Ceasefire” event will be held in conjunction with the International Day of Peace, an annual event celebrated by the United Nations and people throughout the world as a day of global ceasefire and nonviolence. The theme of this year’s Peace Day – celebrated everywhere on Sept. 21 – is “Sustainable Peace for a Sustainable Future,” in keeping with the recent United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. More information about URI’s celebration of the International Day of Peace is available at uri.org.
