{"id":969,"date":"2024-02-07T09:38:27","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T14:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alignment\/?p=969"},"modified":"2024-02-09T07:58:32","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T12:58:32","slug":"what-is-your-prayer-for-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alignment\/2024\/02\/what-is-your-prayer-for-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Your Prayer for Peace?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u201cMay the Light catch you and whisper that we are all better together.\u201d (Image and post by Ran in Coastal Alabama)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

For the annual United Nations observance of World Interfaith Harmony Week<\/a>, communities around the world have hosted events in person and online. Breakfasts, services, workshops, walks, symposia. Peace-making initiatives and calls to climate action. Events fostering unity and interfaith harmony through storytelling and environmental education. Art exhibitions, concerts, spaces of stillness and meditation. In mosques, synagogues, churches, temples, meeting houses, gurdwaras. Intersectionality of traditions, issues, and media. Watching the flow of events through this past week has felt like life-giving oxygen refilling lungs that have been starved of breathing deeply. The tension that holds us paralyzed during these times of war when we have not done enough to support our friends who are hurting. When we have been too cautious lest we offend with calls for ceasefire or offend by not. This week has been oasis. At the heart of it all, it prompts the question: what is your prayer for peace?<\/span><\/p>\n

Alignment: Interfaith Contemplative Practices<\/a> offered an event for World Interfaith Harmony Week<\/a>. A virtual Prayer Wall for Peace<\/a>. The invitation was open to all, of any faith tradition or none, to click on the wall and add an image, a quote, a song, a poem, a message of peace. A simple act not requiring us to log in or sign up, not asking us to be present at a certain time. Some opted to share their names, communities, and affiliation with a tradition, but most did not. Some told me that they visited often to see what other messages were left there or even adding another message each time they visited. Perhaps it felt like respite for them as well. A place that held no obligations or requirements. Just hope. Hope that in a forum that was open to all and available through social media and websites, people of different traditions visited just to leave a thought about interfaith harmony. Each block building the wall was a prayer for peace in its own right.<\/span><\/p>\n