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MAY PEACE PREVAIL
Interfaith Peace Vigil lights up Lake Shore campus
by Dorothy Schardt
Staff Assistant
An Interfaith Peace Vigil was held Tuesday at 7 p.m. on Halas Field. The event, which was in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, brought together members of both the Rogers Park and Loyola communities.
The vigil was an opportunity for community members and students to come together and pray for peace, according to John Farrell, S.J., a Jesuit seminarian who opened with the vigil's welcoming prayer and led the service.
"We want[ed] [this vigil] to be a place where people feel comfortable coming," Farrell said. "We pray with our neighbors that they may feel safe around us."
To this end, representatives from seven religious persuasions led prayers during the vigil. These included Buddhist, Christian, Hare Krishna, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish and Sikh religious leaders, speakers and members of their local followings.
Representing the Sikh community was Shiva Singh Khalsa, a Sikh Dharma of the Gurdwara Sahib of Chicago and a leader in the Chicago area Sikh community. Singh Khalsa said he felt the vigil was important because it allowed the community the opportunity to connect.
"The most important thing right now is to get to know our neighbors and talk to each other, not just about the continuous loop of pain, but also about the much vaster arena of prayer and community," Singh Khalsa said.
A prayer wall stood at the north end of the field where people wrote their prayers and reflections. There was also an area where people could present symbols of peace and remembrance. A peace pole, which read "May peace prevail on earth" in Arabic, English, Hebrew and Hindi was displayed.
The field's lights were dimmed for the event and were replaced by flickering candlelight. A tea light peace sign was prominent. Candles were distributed as people gathered.
Prayers led by representatives from the different religions were interspersed with alternating silence and live music performed by harpist Kristin Gustafson and guitarist Brian Christopher, S.J. At the end of the service, the congregation sang a song of peace together.
Members of the civil justice organization Voices in the Wilderness conceived the idea for the vigil. This organization aims at ending the U.S. economic sanctions that have been in place for the last 11 years against the people of Iraq - sanctions which often end up hurting the wrong groups of people.
Originally, Loyola members of the Chicago chapter of Voices in the Wilderness had planned to stage a three-day encampment on the Jesuit Residence lawn, scheduled to begin Sept. 12. This date corresponded with the planned days of fasting taking place outside the United Nations building in New York City.
After events unfolded on Sept. 11, the group decided not to proceed with the planned encampment, according to junior Emily Marion.
"[We] decided that a more universal call for world peace should be made," Marion said. "We wanted to offer people a time to be still, and to quiet the chaos in their hearts in these days of confusion."
Another student involved with the planning of the vigil, junior Marisa Lazio said she hopes the impact on the school and community will serve to spread the message of peace and to improve understanding between ethnic groups.
"I just pray that this vigil and vigils across the world will make the message of peace contagious," Lazio said. "I have a hard time understanding the discriminatory acts against those of different races and ethnicities associated with the tragedy of Sept. 11. Maybe this vigil will allow people to set those harsh feelings aside and realize we are all human."
Many of the events of the evening were unplanned but fell together perfectly, according to Farrell.
"So much happened spontaneously that I did not anticipate," Farrell said. "It remarks to me that people's hearts were really into this."
One example of this happened when Singh Khalsa, noticing the gathering of young children bearing candles from St. Gertrude's Parish in Rogers Park, commented on a connection between prayer and candles.
"Some people say when you have a candle and you say a prayer, the candle is like a tongue, and it keeps saying the prayer even after you've left it there," Singh Khalsa said.
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revised September 27, 2001 by
phoenix@luc.edu
URL: http://www.luc.edu/phoenix
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