Ahlul Bayt News Agency - ABNA - CHEYENNE (U.S) - Voices echoed in song throughout the State Capitol rotunda Tuesday as Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and others gathered with a common goal: peace.
In 2002, the United Nations established Sept. 21 of each year as the International Day of Peace. The date coincides with the opening of the United Nations General Assembly, and it's meant to establish an international day of peace and ceasefire.
Thousands of groups around the world gathered to commemorate the day.
The Rev. Rick Veit, the rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church and vice president of the Cheyenne Interfaith Council, organized one of this year's events in Cheyenne. It was the fourth such event organized by the Cheyenne Interfaith Council in the last five years.
Veit planned it as a faith-based gathering because "religion, I believe, often causes the opposite of peace."
Members of all faiths are passionate about what they believe, he explained, sometimes to the point of fighting with or killing those who disagree.
So he wanted to bring various faiths together to work toward and demonstrate peace, instead of trying to influence each other toward one faith or another.
"Here, the only influence is peace," he said.
Six religions were represented Tuesday, and Veit said he welcomed others to join.
A group of about 50 people circled the rotunda around a Peace Pole with "may peace prevail on Earth," written on it in several languages.
Representatives from the Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, Unitarian Universalist and Third Threshold Ministering faiths brought symbols of their faith and spoke about peace from various texts and scriptures.
Musicians and singers performed, and the group sang hymns and songs of faith and peace together.
Rakhshi Hamid, a local Muslim dressed in a flowing green headscarf, read passages from the Quran that spoke about all creatures being from one god.
Later, she said the event served as a good reminder that peace can unify everyone.
One observer, Richard Kotlarz, said he wished political parties would come together and work for peace as well.
Although Veit said he didn't know whether the U.S. military observed a day of ceasefire on the International Day of Peace, he said the country is very supportive of the message.
And while he was happy with the turnout at Tuesday's event, "a lot of people chose to stay away," he said. "I think that's a statement as well."
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