22.09.2020
Faith Leaders offer perspectives on peace on International Day of Peace
Dublin City Interfaith Forum marked the UN International Day of Peace with an online gathering of Faith Leaders yesterday (Monday September 21). The Faith Leaders, including Archbishop Michael Jackson, gave reflections on peace and read prayers. There were also musical contributions. Together they created a picture of peace from different faith perspectives.
Peace is not only the end of conflict but is a dynamic positive state of existence with each other, said Dr Jasbir Singh Puri of the Sikh community in Dublin. Seeing no one as a stranger could help bring about peace, he suggested. He spoke of the importance of following the natural laws and said people must live in harmony with each other and with nature.
As Jewish people are celebrating the Jewish New Year, Chairperson of the Dublin Progressive Jewish Congregation, Hilary Abrahamson, wished participants Shanah tovah. She said it was not enough to pray for peace. We have to work for it: challenge propaganda, ascertain the truth, denounce injustice, defend human rights, insist that peace requires sacrifice of pride and wealth and to practice moderation, compromise and reconciliation, she said. She added that we must build bridges of trust and friendship.
Sheikh Eid Zaher of Islamic Cultural Centre of Ireland extended his deepest sympathies to families of victims of coronavirus and prayed for the recovery of current patients. He said Muslims were part of “this dear country” and their message is one of peace and tolerance towards all in this diverse country.
Dr Ali Alsaleh of the Shi’a Centre in Milltown emphasised that we all need each other. “One lesson from this pandemic – I am a victim of this pandemic with my family – is our need for each other. The most beautiful image was to see the medical staff from all the continents – from Africa, from Asia, from Europe all united in saving their patients. And also the patients were from many race, from many sex, from many nationality. We were receiving the same treatment, the same care. Here also we need to use this opportunity to pray for the patient to get health, but for the medical staff and those serving the patients and to encourage the people to obey the Government regulations,” he stated.
Dr Hemant Kumar leader of the Vedic Hindu Cultural Centre of Ireland observed that 2020 is a unique year where an invisible has made us realise that all people and communities in the world are the same. As the whole world united to fight this virus, he hoped the whole world would be together in creating peace.
Swami Purnananda also representing the Hindu community said the Covid virus does not respect people and inherently it should bring us together. But it does not bring us peace, he said. Peace is hard to describe but he suggested it could be viewed as a kind of fluid, like a river that could flow through the whole universe. “Today we find many people in distress because of war. If we want peace of mind we should not find fault with others and learn to make the whole world our own – not just one world, one culture, one faith. When we find peace inside ourselves we also find it everywhere and this will lead us to a movement of solidarity,” he said.
Archbishop Michael Jackson shared a way to talk of peace from three viewpoints: seeing peace; making peace; and keeping peace. “Time and again, we rush to making peace in the hope of keeping peace. We miss out on the earlier need of seeing peace. This is peace envisioned not as something on the distant horizon, but as something already in our hearts and in the hearts of those we want to have and to own their own peace. We need to see this peace, if we are going to share it. Peace is part of our personal homework. Peace impacts everyone. Peace begins with each one of us in attitude and expectation, in willingness and concentration,” he said.
Pastor Dare Adetuberu of the Redeemed Christian Church of God observed that the pandemic had disrupted peace like nothing we could have imagined in our lifetime. “We are struggling to find peace globally and personally. But he said there are places in the world where the pandemic has masked the greater disruption to peace. Self isolation is security and peace from the pandemic in some parts of the world but in some parts of the world isolation is actually a greater threat to peace. People have had to leave their houses at this time because there is a greater threat to their lives now that there is isolation,” he contended.
Fr Alan Hilliard of the Archdiocese of Dublin said that God doesn’t give us peace because we are good, God gives us peace because he is good. A person who cannot have peace in their heart is their own enemy, he added. He began to draw the event to a close by reading a prayer for peace.
Alison Wortley of the Bahai community said the establishment of peace was a duty to which the entire human race is called. She also led participants in prayer. Representing the Zen Buddist community in Ireland, Revd Kozen, read the Meta Sutra. A song was played from Pastor Stefan Arras, leader of the Lutheran Church in Ireland.
You can read Archbishop Jackson’s contribution in full here.