Amsterdam, Netherlands - UPF-Netherlands activists, who are promoting, advocating, and celebrating interfaith harmony 52 weeks of the year, marked UN Interfaith Harmony Week 2012 with an evening dinner at its Dialogue Center in Amsterdam on February 9. Invitees included representatives of a multitude of faiths and traditions, including Judaism; Sunni, Shi'a, Sufi and Ahmadiyya Islam; Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Celtic Christianity; Hinduism; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; Scientology; Brahma Kumaris; and Celtic paganism.
The banner and other artwork promoting UN World Interfaith Harmony Week were displayed prominently inside and outside the center on Argonautenstraat all week, and at three Unificationist events the posters were seen by visitors.
On February 2, Dutch Family Federation President Hans Campman gave a detailed and revelatory talk on the early European Christians' effort to fulfill St. Augustine's dream of the "City of God" during the first millennium AD. The next day featured lectures, discussion, and fellowship. Hans Campman spoke at a Sunday service that featured original compositions by musicians.
One newcomer to events at the Dialogue Center is 78-year-old Cees Terol, who has spent his whole life seeking the true faith and true way to build the true Jerusalem. Starting as a fervent Communist, who visited Moscow and East Berlin as “meccas” of his faith, he has been a Jehovah's Witness and Mormon. He said he always fasts during Ramadan in sympathy with his Muslim brethren, and he delights audiences with renditions of old songs from De Jordaan, a predominantly (in the past) Jewish part of Amsterdam, which he learned out of love for his Jewish wife.
Cees, who has walked such diverse traditions in the course of his life, attended the February 9 World Interfaith Harmony dinner.
For more information about World Interfaith Harmony Week, click here.