Interfaith Prayers for Peace in Israel and Gaza
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 | 2:00 – 3:30 pm
Northaven United Methodist Church
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Welcome:
Rev. Eric Folkerth, Senior Pastor, North Haven United
Methodist Church
Opening Remarks:
-
Mustafa Carroll, Executive Director, CAIR-TX, DFW
Chapter
-
Mike Ghouse – Board Member Dallas Peace Center &
Foundation for Pluralism
A few personal pictures of the event at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeghouse/sets/72157612209356071/
Invocations by:
- Rev. Eric Folkerth – North Haven United
Methodist Church
- Imam Dr. Yusuf Kavakci – Imam, Islamic
Association of North Texas
- Rev. Theresa Ramos – Buddhist Healing Prayer
- Rev. Diane Baker – First Community Church
- Robin Hackett – A John Lennon Song
- Ann Garner – Native American Indians
- Rev. David Howard – Unity Church of Arlington
- Roger Kallenberg – Jewish voice for peace
- Imam Khalid Shaheed – Imam, Masjid Al-Islam
- Jaswant Singh – Gurdwara Singh
Sabha
- Madan Goyal – Hindu Prayer for peace
- Rev. L. Charles Stovall – Munger Avenue United
Methodist Church
- Rev. Marc Waltz – Universal Unitarian Church of
Oak Cliff
Music Selections by:
Rev. Eric Folkerth
Robin Hackett
Rev. David Howard & J. Kendall Johnson
Closing Remarks & Prayer
-----------
Opening Remarks by Mike Ghouse
Greetings
What is Greetings? It is a call to connect with the
other person, it is the desire build friendships, and
the need to be connected with the other.
Whether it is a Hindu greeting which invokes the
goodness in you to connect with the goodness in me; or
the Bahai, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh, Zoroastrian, native
and indigenous traditions, the idea of the greetings
is the same; the terms of endearment -both to be in
peace when the meet.
The Christian, Jewish and Muslim greetings
particularly use the word Peace in their greetings and
asking God’s blessings to shower on each one of us.
That is the first call upon meeting any one. When we
are blessed with God’s grace and peaceful mind, then
what follows is peace. We just have to get this in our
hearts and minds. Peace is powerful.
If you look at the models of peace - the Gandhi's, the
Mandela's, MLK's, Mother Teresa's and the great
teachers - Moses, Jesus, Mohammad, Krishna, Buddha,
Mahavir, Nanak, Bahaullah, Confucius, Zarthustra and
several others, you find one thing common in them all,
they were secure and peaceful from within, and that is
how they could give that to the world. If we desire to
give, we must have it first.
Let us truly be blessed with peace within us, when we
are free from ill-will, hate, anger, revenge, and when
we are at peace, our thoughts, actions and words will
emit peace.
The Dallas Peace Center and The Council on American
Islamic Relations (CAIR) welcome you to today’s
interfaith prayer service. We are calling on clergy of
all faiths to invoke the teachings of their sacred
scriptures as they join their voices together in a
unison call for peace.
You have come here to participate in a prayer and
healing event. Our intention is to recognize, mourn
and honor those who have been injured or lost, and to
help end the conflict between Israel and Gaza. As
such, we request only your presence and intention to
express peace; no signs, banners, flags, please.
We appeal to all parties to cease fire and start a
dialogue to resolve the conflict. Both the Torah and
the Qur'aan remind us that saving a life is like
saving the whole of humanity. In that spirit, we ask
you to take your place among the peacemakers today.
Join us, and pray with us.
The mission of the Dallas Peace Center is based on a
vision of reconciliation: To promote research,
education, dialogue, and action for peace with
justice. We support the use of nonviolent methods
aimed toward the establishment of a genuine and
sustainable worldwide culture of peace, believing that
the punitive use of force, bombs and bullets will
never achieve such a goal.
Let us truly be blessed with peace within us and I
request ya’ll to recite a few greetings with me,
Please feel free to remain silent or repeat the
greetings in your thoughts or with your voice;
Bahai – Allahu Abho
Buddhist – Buddha Namo
Christian – Peace to you
Hindu – Namaste
Islam – Salaam
Jain – Jai Jinendra
Jewish – Shalom
Sikh – Satsri Akaal
Zoroastrian – Hamazor Hama Asho bed
and Hi! to represent all other traditions.
May God bless every one of us, and the ones in Gaza,
Israel and every place to be peaceful in our thoughts,
words and actions, and may Peace become the norm of
our thinking.
Amen
# # #
Abstracts from the speech of
Rev Mark Walz, UUMA Minister,
Unitarian Universalists Church of Oak Cliff
“… in our pain and confusion we seem to seek some
childish and naïve idea of perfect justice, as if some
form of a perfect justice could ever come from the
centuries of pain we have inflicted on each other. In
our self-righteous attempts to justify the great havoc
we visit upon each other, we draw arbitrary beginnings
to the conflicts that inspire our hateful and
despicable retaliations. Nor much is available for
humans not know with certainty. But this we do know;
vengeance will never create the peace we seek..”
# ##
Imam Dr. Yusuf Kavakci, Imam, Islamic
Association of North Texas in Richardson.
In the name of God, The Most Gracious, The Dispenser
of Grace:
All praise is due to God alone, the Sustainer of all
the worlds,
The Most Gracious, the Dispenser of Grace,
Lord of the Day of Judgment!
Thee alone do we worship; and unto Thee alone do we
turn for aid.
Guide us the right way.
The way of those upon whom Thou hast bestowed Thy
blessings,
not of those who did not earn your grace.
# #
Rev. Charles Stovall, Munger Avenue United
Methodist Church
.. The humanitarian crisis is becoming unbearable, and
the threat to stability not only impacts the region
but the world. We have to pray for a peaceful
solution. We have to come to pray for a spiritual
solution. We have to pray that those who have power
will use restraint and bring an end to fighting and
seek a lasting peace.
The doctrine of seeking peace and showing mercy is in
the Holy Qur’aan and in the sacred scripture of the
old Testament and the New Testament. Reconciliation,
not retribution, is the Jehovah, Allah, God’s vision
for humanity. God’s ultimate vision is that of peace
in God’s holy mountain as spoken of in Isaiah 11.
We will not be prisoners of fear, of hatred and
insecurity. We affirm out commonality in the creator
and our hope for all humankind.
So we pray together, Jews, Christians and Muslims,
until we beat our swords into plowshare, and our
spears into pruning hooks. We pray until we can lay
down our swords and shields down by the riverside and
study war no more.
##
As I get the time, I will type the other speeches.
# # #
PRESS RELEASE
Interfaith Prayers for Peace in Israel and Gaza
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
2:00 – 3:30 pm
Northaven United Methodist Church
11211 Preston Road, Dallas, TX 75230
The Dallas Peace Center and The Council on American
Islamic Relations (CAIR) welcome you to today’s
interfaith prayer service. We are calling on clergy of
all faiths to invoke the teachings of their sacred
scriptures as they join their voices together in a
unison call for peace.
This is a prayer and healing
event. Our intention is to recognize, mourn and honor
those who have been injured or lost, and to help end
the conflict between Israel and Gaza.
We appeal to all parties to cease fire and start a
dialogue to resolve the conflict. Both the Torah and
the Qur'aan remind us that saving a life is like
saving the whole of humanity. In that spirit, we ask
you to take your place among the peacemakers today.
Join us, and pray with us.
The mission of the Dallas Peace Center is based on a
vision of reconciliation: To promote research,
education, dialogue, and action for peace with
justice. We support the use of nonviolent methods
aimed toward the establishment of a genuine and
sustainable worldwide culture of peace, believing that
the punitive use of force, bombs and bullets will
never achieve such a goal.
CAIR's vision is to be a leading advocate for
justice and mutual understanding.
Shalom. Salaam. Peace be with you, and thank you for
joining with us today.
# # #
Additional information
Directions:
http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result.php?q1=11211+Preston+Rd%2C+Dallas%2C+TX%E2%80%8E+
Additional notes: It is our religious duty to
mitigate conflicts and nurture goodwill, our words,
actions, videos and voices ought to pave the way for
peace and not aggravate. Here is a beautiful video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkqKzkO1ZDY
This is a
prayer and healing event, to recognize and help end
the conflict in Gaza. We appeal to all
parties to cease fire and start a dialogue to
resolve the conflict. The Torah and the Qur'aan
state that saving a life is like saving the whole
humanity, and in that sprit we ask each one of the
peace makers to join us and pray with us.
When: Tuesday, January 6th
between 2:00 and 3:30 PM
Where: North
Haven United Methodist church
Address:
1211 Preston Road (SW
Corner of Preston and North Haven) Dallas, TX 75225
Mike Ghouse
Board member, Dallas Peace Center -
www.Dallaspeacecenter.org
