The interfaith walk is a unique opportunity for the religiously diverse population of Philadelphia to come together, engage in dialogue, learn about each other’s faiths, and “pray with their voices and their feet” for peace. The walk is intentionally non-political. Only signs and banners that express a wish for peace are permitted. In addition, participants are asked to wear white as a display of unity.
This year, the walk is taking place in West Philadelphia. It begins at 2:00pm at Hickman Temple AME Church (5001 Baltimore Avenue). From there the walk will proceed to St. Francis de Sales Parish (4627 Springfield Avenue), continue through Clark Park (45th and Baltimore), and conclude at Calvary Center for Community and Culture (801 S 48th Street) where there will be refreshments. For those unable to walk the route, a bus will be provided.
At each stop there will be an interfaith program with members of many faith communities sharing how they understand peace through their faith. Some of the interfaith programs will include listening to a Sufi telling a story, a rabbi offering a prayer, a Sikh youth choir chanting a hymn, and a Lakota Nation leader sharing words of inspiration.
The interfaith walk began as a grassroots project in response to the events of 9/11. Lynn Gottlieb, a rabbi in New Mexico, contacted Abdul Rauf Campos-Marquetti, an imam from a mosque across town, and organized an Interfaith Walk for Jewish-Muslim Reconciliation through Albuquerque that April. Inspired by the Jewish-Muslim walk, a small group of Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Philadelphia came together and created an Abrahamic reconciliation walk the following fall. In the following years, the walk expanded turning into an interfaith walk, and every year more faith communities join in.
Website: www.interfaithpeacewalk.org
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