World Interfaith Harmony Week 2013
For a PowerPoint overview of UPF observances, click here.
- Written by: UPF - Argentina
Buenos Aires, Argentina - Fifteen young Americans from the Generation Peace Academy arrived in Buenos Aires Jan. 17, 2013, as part of a service-learning program designed to strengthen ties between people of North America and South America..
- Written by: UPF - Japan
Tokyo, Japan - Around the second anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami on March 11, the Japanese Archipelago was the setting of prayers for the victims, who number 20,000, including the missing, as well as for reconstruction from the devastation. UPF-Japan organized two such events, on January 24 and February 2.
- Written by: UPF - New Zealand
Auckland, New Zealand - New Zealand, like many countries, has become a melting pot of cultures and faiths. However, this multicultural environment has not always been harmonious, so a World Interfaith Harmony Week program on February 2 offered an opportunity to address this issue.
- Written by: UPF - Germany
Stuttgart and Munich, Germany - UPF joined the "House of Religion in Stuttgart" for an observance of World Interfaith Harmony Week on February 2. A theologian, Dr. Karlheinz Bartel, spoke about his experience with Buddhism in light of the Interfaith Harmony Week, which is the first week of February. Dr. Bartel lived for some time in Japan, studied Buddhism, and came to learn how to practice meditation, which he undertook with the attendees. In Munich, representatives of various Christian churches and religious communities met to recite prayers for peace and offer musical presentations.
- Written by: Nobuhiro Igarashi, UPF - Denmark
Copenhagen, Denmark - UPF-Denmark held its second Interfaith Religious Leaders Meeting on Feb. 2, 2013. As the event coincided with the World Interfaith Harmony Week established by the United Nations, the theme of the meeting was interfaith harmony. Participants included two Christian pastors and two evangelists, two Muslim leaders and the national leader of Scientology in Denmark.
- Written by: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
New York, USA - For billions of people around the world, faith is an essential foundation of life. It provides strength in times of difficulty and an important sense of community. The vast majority of people of faith live in harmony with their neighbours, whatever their creed, but each religion also harbours a strident minority prepared to assert fundamentalist doctrines through bigotry and extreme violence.
For reports of World Interfaith Harmony Week observances organized by UPF, click here.
- Written by: UPF - Moldova
Chisinau, Moldova - Christian, Muslim, and Unificationist youth played volleyball together in Chisinau on February 1, marking the start of World Interfaith Harmony Week in the Republic of Moldova.
- Written by: Colleen Scott, Salt Lake City Interfaith Roundtable
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA - The Salt Lake City Interfaith Roundtable officially kicked off Interfaith Month 2013 with a special breakfast meeting on January 31 at the Salt Lake Downtown Marriott Hotel, which also recognized the annual World Interfaith Harmony Week, February 1-7.
- Written by: UPF - Canada
Montreal, Canada - In support of World Interfaith Harmony Week, UPF-Montreal gathered on the evening of January 28. After some reflections about the worldwide promotion of Interfaith Harmony Week, Mr. Anthony Mansour, of the Orthodox Church in Montreal and former President of the Canadian Center for Ecumenism, gave a presentation on pluralism.