[interfaithsociety] World Peace and Prayer Day - S. Africa and
wherever you are

"All Nations, All Faiths, One Prayer! - Peace and Healing!"

Dear Friends

We cordially invite you to participate in a special weekend of Prayer ,
Healing and Reconciliation from the 21st to 23rd June 2002,
World Peace and Prayer Day.(WPPD)

World Peace and Prayer Day, WPPD, is an international event taking place in
Durban.  Over the past 7 years this event has been observed at various
venues around the world.  The person who initiated this is Chief Arvol
Looking Horse, the Spiritual Leader of Indigenous people of North America,
whose own history bears deep scars of bloodshed, poverty, disease, war and
holocaust.

Chief Arvol has been leading prayers at the United Nations and is a world
renowned peace apostle.  South Africa is honoured by the presence of this
delegation of spiritual leaders.  South Africa itself has been blessed with
leading personalities such as Chief Albert Luthuli, Dr. Nelson Mandela,
Emeritius Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mr. F. W. De Klerk.  All of whom
received the Nobel Peace Prize for their work in building peace and unity
among the diverse peoples of our country.  This country has also been
blessed by the work and contribution of Mahatma Gandhi, whose legacy WPPD
honours at his first communal settlement called the Phoenix Settlement, in
Inanda.

"It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a
heart."
- Mahatma Gandhi

It is with pleasure we extend this invitation to yourself and your family,
your community, on behalf of the WPPD Coordinating Committee, to attend the
World Peace and Prayer Day 2002 activities, June 21-23.  The main site is on
the grounds of Shree Mariammen Temple, Mount Edgecombe, northwest of the
Ethekwini municipality. We will be sending directions with the second
notice.

World Peace and Prayer Day is launched with the Horse Ride Ceremony,
beginning 07h00, June 21, at Mahatma Gandhi's homestead, the Phoenix
Settlement.  Ten horses, ridden by Native American Spiritual Leaders and
special representatives from Durban's own community, will lead a procession
en mass of peace and unity from Inanda to Phoenix, in a bold and historic
South African Unity Ride of reconciliation.  We invite you to walk with us.
In Native American circles, the entire ride is viewed as a single prayer.
So too, in our South African community, will this entire Unity Ride be a
single prayer.

We hope you will join us and our brothers and sisters from around the world,
on June 21-23, as we embark on this journey of honoring the sacredness of
our shared spirit and of celebrating the beauty which is our unique
differences.

For those who are unable to be with us in person , we ask you to celebrate
with us in spirit with prayer and reconciliation in your own   Home, Garden,
Church, Temple, Synagogue, Mosque or wherever you may be .  Please include
special prayers of Peace, Healing and Reconciliation for our world at all
services on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd June 2002.

The whole earth is in need of healing and peace and reconciliation -
physical, mental, emotional, environmental and spiritual. Please help us to
heal our world together!

We look forward to prayers of Hope and Healing and Peace rising from the
four corners of the earth leading to a new era of Peace, Hope and Healing.

Yours in Peace and Prayer
Paddy Meskin                                Abigail Christophel
Chairperson WCRP                     Co-ordinator WPPD


I honour your sacredness, your humanness.  I ask you to honour mine.  It's
good that we meet at this crucial time.  This Sacred time--this Crossroads
in human and Earth Mother's history.  Yes it's good.
   - Chief Arvol Looking Horse
.

PRAYER FOR PEACE, HEALING AND FORGIVENESS

We need a Great Healing,
And we need a Great Forgiving,
But healing can't begin without Forgiveness.
We must Forgive each other,
Forgive our loved ones,
Forgive our friends,
Forgive our enemies,
Forgive ourselves.

We need to pray even for a person
Who has done us wrong!
In our Tiospaye, our family,
When two people fight,
They are made brothers or sisters.

Forgiveness itself is a powerful medicine.
We need forgiveness to create Peace!

In the Great Circle of Life,
Where there is no beginning
And no ending!
So be it!

- Chief Arvol Looking  Horse -