Thousands Cross Racial, Religious, Cultural Lines for Peace

The Global Peace Festival (GPF) is a worldwide celebration of faith, family, and service, gathering people from different races, religions, and national origins as "One Family under God." This Saturday afternoon, August 9th at 5pm, thousands will gather to celebrate GPF USA at the US Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Over the past three months, GPF has been partnering with faith-based organizations, non-profits, youth groups, and others in the Washington Metro area and around the country. Hundreds of service projects, prayer breakfasts, interfaith dialogues, sports competitions, and other initiatives both small and large have been held.

On Wednesday, August 6th, over a thousand volunteers joined a city-wide a day of service and peace led by the Points of Light Institute and featuring the Anacostia Watershed Society, Boys & Girls Club of Greater Washington Area, the U.S. National Arboretum, Rock Creek Parks, Washington Parks and People, and DC Office on Aging. A food drive for Washington's hungry families will continue right up to the August 9th main program. Organizers are hoping for a "million acts of service and kindness" that will continue long after the Festival is over.

Among the speakers scheduled for the August 9th event are Dr. Joseph B Lowery, Dr. Walter Fauntroy, Bishop Jim and Debye Swilley, Hon. Rita Di Martino, and Dr. Hyun Jin Moon. Entertainment will be provided by 5-time Grammy Winner Yolanda Adams, Grammy Winner David Phelps, and the Fraternidad Jayas Tinmus dance champions from Bolivia.

For people of varied backgrounds and religions, the GPF is providing a way to meet and work together on issues of common concern. In the most recent festival in Paraguay, more than 70 schools joined the “Asunción, My City” campaign to make the parks and playgrounds safer for kids, In Nairobi, Kenya -- site of the next GPF -- people who lost family members during the inter-ethnic strife following last December’s presidential elections are working together to clean up sewage and trash from the Nairobi River, the "dirtiest river in Africa."

Altogether, 17 Global Peace Festivals are planned for 2008, with the grand finale in late December.