Residents gather to pray for peace

Friday, Feb. 14, 2003 | 9:16 a.m.

Demonstrations

On the eve of the United Nations debate over a possible showdown with Iraq, about 50 people gathered at Christ Episcopal Church to pray and sing for peace Thursday night.

"It's the war with Iraq that brought me," said Tom Casler, who attended the vigil at the church on Maryland Parkway at St. Louis Avenue. "I think it's insane."

Representatives from the Muslim, Jewish and Christian faiths came together to share ideas of peace and hope to counter talk of war.

Franciscan nun Rosemary Lynch reminded the crowd of a previous clash of cultures and religions when she spoke of the founder of her order, St. Francis of Assisi, who went into the Crusades, all the way up to a sultan's tent on a battlefield, "not as a warrior, but as a brother."

Spiritual messages from the Bible, the Koran and the Torah reverberated through the church. Verses from the Book of Psalms were read, along with references to Star Trek.

Zafar Ali Anjum, director of the Islamic Society of Nevada, said he discovered messages of peace in both the Bible and the Koran.

"If we go to war, it will tear apart the peace of the whole world," he said. "We need to spread those messages of peace."

Imam Mujahid Ramadan of the American Muslim Society, said: "God says he created all of us from one soul."

Faith represents a belief in something better to come, he said.

"Our faith -- the faith of Muslims, Christians and Jews -- is going to be tested," Ramadan said.

The Rev. Phil Hausknect, a Lutheran priest, told the crowd that the world must not forget the accounts of the horrific aftermath of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945.

"Children on their way to school heard a single plane in the sky," Hausknect said. A torrid white flash followed by black rain filled with radiation followed. Between 120,000 and 130,000 were killed in the nuclear blast.

People need "to create a road to justice, a road to lasting peace," Hausknect said.

Christ Church Deacon Bonnie Polley called for "repairing the world" with a revolution of the heart.

"Without God's saving grace, we come into conflict with our neighbors," she said.

Cantor Joel Gordon of the Congregation Shirat Emet read from Ecclesiastes, "For every time there is a season ... "

When he spoke the words, "There is a time for peace and a time for war," the church was absolutely silent, even the youngest child.

"This is a time of confusion, a time for prayer," Gordon said.

"I know this isn't Star Trek, but we have to find another way to peace. We need to map out a destiny while there is still time for peace."

The Rev. Patricia Pearlman of the Temple of Goddess Spirituality prayed for peace by peaceful means.

"I think we're all thinking the same way," she said. "I pray the adversaries will communicate."