Jews, Christians, and Muslims across the city of San Antonio are coming together for a special prayer service Thursday evening at the University of the Incarnate Word. Featuring the prayers, words, and music of one each religion’s sacred texts and traditions, participants will come together with hearts longing for peace in amid the warfare, strife and suffering gripping the Middle East.
Faith leaders from across San Antonio’s congregational communities will participate in the ecumenical gathering, including Imam Omar Shakir of Masjid Bilal Ibn R’abah; Rabbi Mara Nathan of Temple Beth-El; Hardeep Singh of the Sikh Dharamsal; Hebrew language educator Rachel Walsh; Omar Husain of the Muslim Children Education and Civic Center; Sister Martha Ann Kirk of the Incarnate Word Sisters; Gloria Ray of St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, and others.
Performances include choral arrangements by San Antonio’s Vocal Arts Ensemble as well as a reading by acclaimed poet and novelist Naomi Shihab Nye.
This interfaith prayer event will take place at 6:30 p.m. in UIW’s International Conference Center, located on the southwest corner of campus. Due to continuing construction and lane closures for westbound Hilderbrand Avenue traffic, attendees are encouraged to approach the corner of 281 and Hilderbrand from either Brackenridge Park (by way of Broadway) or through the UIW campus (from Broadway to the front gate of UIW). For more details concerning UIW’s traffic, please visit www.uiw.edu/construction.
The event is open to the public in the spirit of peace and goodwill. For more information about the interfaith prayer event, please contact Sister Martha Ann Kirk of the University of the Incarnate Word at kirk@uiwtx.edu, or Rachel Walsh at 210-373-7738 or rhwalsh@sbcglobal.net.
*Featured/top image: (From left) Sister Martha Ann Kirk, a new friend, and Jessica Kimmel at a Women in Black demonstration in Jerusalem with Israeli and Palestinian women who refuse to be enemies. Photo courtesy of Sister Martha Ann Kirk.
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