Interfaith Service Jan 1

[wil]

Just received this....for folks in the DC area... maybe a calendar tool would be handy here...


Dear brothers and sisters who love PEACE,
I sincerely ask your patience with me for inviting you all so late to a special interfaith gathering the first day of this New Year 2007.
What better way to start the new year than with people from many different faiths who are determined to bring peace more substantially within their own hearts, families, communities, nations, and the world!
This theme of this gathering is World Peace through Interreligious Cooperation
and is hosted by my faith community, Northern VA Family Church.

There will be delicious international food, beautiful music, and prayers offered by representatives from many different faith backgrounds. It will be held Monday, January 1st at the

Sheraton National Hotel

900 S. Orme St.

Arlington,VA 22204

703-521-1900

4 PM-7PM

Grand Ball Rm. (1st floor)

This is a family event; feel free to bring your entire family, but please RSVP by Sunday night so that we can be sure to have enough food for everyone.

This is a catered event and a small donation would be appreciated.

Parking will be free with a validated ticket at our reception area.

There will be a literature table in the back, so please bring information about projects with which you are involved so that we can see how we can work together in this coming year.

I look forward to seeing you all there.

PEACE~ SHALOM ~SALAAM ALEICHEM

[InLove]

wil--intriguing.

Are you going?

InPeace,
InLove,
Deb

[flowperson]

Wish I had my local-nonlocal Quantum physical/ material transporter thingy built. Maybe this year. Well...anyway, if it was working I'd be there. Have a wonderful time and we, of course will want a full report.

Peace and love to you and yours my brother...flow....

[wil]

The report...oh my what a time we had...Happy Global Family Day!

What a way to kick off the new year!

So I had two takers to go with over to the event. Joan and Ellen both said they'd love to attend and we carpooled thru DC and over the Potomac into Arlington.

We arrived early and were greeted by the minister of the church that organized it, we were in the grand ballroom of the Sheraton and I being the anal one I am counted 10 seats at a table, 6 tables in 3 rows on each side...oops one missing over there...350 seats...

The food from Japan, Korea, India, Pakistan...the people, all ages, all nationalities. The religions, Jewish, Christian, Muslim (Sunni, Shi'a and Sufi at the same tables), Hindu, Bahai, Native American (of those I met, not all spoke)

Back to the beginning, my little party we picked a table about midfield, sat on the side that had a view...and waited for the festivities to begin. Rhonda who sent me the email eventually found us and wisked us away to another table....one of the speakers tables. So we sat with one of the organizers and three of the speakers...(at the end folks were coming up to me and asking me questions...celebrity by association) Anyhow great conversations...

John Denner, Points of Light Foundation, has written a Native American Play called We are Family...

Gail Paine, organizer of the event and Projects Director for Universal Peace Federation

Linda Grover Co-founder of the Global Family Foundation

Speaker after speaker telling of working out our differences in race, religion, politics...knowing that it is not up to our leaders in each race, religion or country...as they have agendas, but upto us, as citizens of the planet to form grassroots movements, to join together, to break bread together, and to find a way to end hunger, create peace and heal our planet.

It was incredible, wonderful, heart warming. The lady that invited me Rhonda, after dropping me off at a speakers table and introducing me, left to work with all the children. While the adults were eating she took the kids to eat in another room. And while the speaches and songs were going on, she was working with them on songs. They came back in, about 30 of them from 4-16 I'd say and sang and signed songs from Africa, Judaism, and Native American...

To sum up the evenging for this Global Family Day we sang...

Our Global Family (to the tune of Auld Lang Syne)

Should global family everywhere
On the first day of the year
Join together for a meal
Ending hunger, hate and fear

We'll make our resolution then
We'll sing it loud and clear
We'll share our meals throughout the world
On the first day of each year.

written by and copyright 2007 John Danner and Deb Combs as the drove headed to the event, All rights reserved. Permission to publish here by authors.

didja know...

GLOBAL FAMILY Day, One Day of Peace and Sharing, is the world’s first-ever annual celebration of the reality that we are all one human family striving for a safer world. This unifying new tradition, created by children, was unanimously passed (for the second time) on September 25th 2006 by the U.S. Congress. It has also been endorsed twice by the UN General Assembly and by more than 20 sitting heads of state.

I didn't, but I do now, and so do you.

What a wonderful way to kick off the year, a good time was had by all!