By Lori Whittemore,
Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.”
—John F. Kennedy
How do we create peace? How do we go about the process of eroding old barriers and building new structures? These are questions people of faith ask themselves. For those of us with children and grandchildren, these questions carry special meaning as we want to see our descendants inherit a world in which war and its underlying root causes of poverty, separation, and injustice, have become obsolete.
Here at the Abbey of Hope, an interfaith cooperation circle nestled within the framework of the United Religions Initiative (URI), our Leadership Council decided to contribute something positive to the conversation about peace. URI is a global grassroots interfaith network that cultivates peace and justice by engaging people to bridge religious and cultural differences and work together for the good of their communities and the world. A few years ago, URI created a bioregional grant to promote interfaith events. The Abbey of Hope has been fortunate enough to receive a grant to launch the Piscataqua Peace Forum as we planned an in-person event at Green Acres, on the banks of the Piscataqua River.
Our planning team began our process over a year ago. The program was developed to feature important peace builders and truth tellers from different faith traditions and peace organizations and was originally scheduled for the last week in September—close to the International Day of Peace.
Sadly, as a result of the Covid-19 situation, the in-person forum has had to be postponed until September 24-26 of 2021. With that in mind we have worked to create a virtual event that will include many of our guest speakers sharing short presentations to start conversations and actions that lead up to the full event scheduled for 2021. We also decided to change the name to reflect a more global identity. Our new name is One Planet Peace Forum (OPPF). This year’s OPPF event will take place on Zoom from 3-5 pm on the 25, 26, and 27 of September.
Join us to hear Audrey Kitagawa, Chair of Parliament of World Religions; Victor Kazanjian, Chair of United Religions Initiative; Kurt Johnson; Layli Miller Muro; Swami Tyagananda; Philip Hellmich; Dot Maver; Mohammad Al Samawi; David Ragland; and Robert Shetterly begin our conversation about creating peace.
Please visit the website oneplanetpeaceforum.org to learn more about this year’s launch and to register.
Lori Whittemore a spiritual care volunteer for the American Red Cross and Maine Behavioral Health, as well as the founder and director of Abbey of Hope and Clinical Pastoral Training Center of Southern Maine (CPTCSM). Through CPTCSM she trains chaplains and pastoral care givers with today’s varied religious and spiritual landscape in mind. Rev. Whittemore approaches interfaith ministry from her Christian background and training as well as her interfaith education at Chaplaincy Institute of Maine.
OPPF banner design by Lindy Gifford
