— Jan 02, 2003
1,000 gather to pray for peace
BY JENA HOWARD CORRESPONDENT
ENGLEWOOD -- The speakers were Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Baha'i, but the message was the same at the Prayers for World Peace service at
Englewood United Methodist Church on Wednesday.
STAFF PHOTO / BERT CASS /
bert.cass@heraldtribune.com |
Give peace a chance.
Event leaders sang, spoke and prayed at the 13th annual New Year's Day rally for peace, one of many rallies held across the
nation. They asked the nearly 1,000 people who attended to pray for world peace and to sign petitions protesting war with Iraq.
The
21/2-hour program was sponsored by the Southwest Florida Peace Education Coalition, the Englewood Area Ministerial Association and the Peace
River Coalition.
"We as Americans are shaping the destiny of a lot of people around the world," said the Rev. Fahed Abu-Akel, the
keynote speaker and moderator for the Presbyterian Church USA of Atlanta.
"We need to be more responsible in our behavior," the Palestinian born Abu-Akel said. "We are dealing with billions of people
in the rest of the world, and we know zero about their history."
Abu-Akel said he could not have graduated from high school in Galilee
without being proficient in three languages: Arabic, his native tongue; Hebrew, which he started learning in fourth grade; and
English.
"I would like to see the day when graduating Americans will understand the languages and cultures of the rest of the world," he
said.
Abu-Akel said the United States needs to tell Israel to end the 35-year occupation of the West Bank. The area could be
self-supporting without American money if tourism were actively promoted.
"Three billion human beings want to visit Jerusalem each
year," he said. "Floridians understand you cannot have a healthy economy without tourism. Unless they can exist in peace, there is no
future."
Samar Jarrah, representing the Islamic Community of Southwest Florida in Port Charlotte, said Americans could prevent the
deaths of innocent people by speaking out against war. "We are asking you, the American people to save us," Jarrah said.
Peace Day coordinator August Scmitz read "The Mother's Song," a Jewish prayer written by Miriam Schneid-Ofseyer of North Port.
It called for an international alliance of mothers against war.
Christianity, Judaism and Islam all have a history of bloodshed, said
the Rev. Arthur Lee, rector of St. David's Episcopal Church in Englewood.
"Without forgiveness, the past will repeat itself over and
over and and over," Lee said. "If we forgive, we become the sons and daughters of God, who forgives us."
Last modified: January 02. 2003 12:00AM
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