Peaceful Presence Gatherings on 11th of Every Month

Monthly Multifaith Prayers for Peace and Justice
7-7:30pm on 11th of every month
NEXT GATHERING: Monday, November 11 - hosted by First Congregational Church of Palo Alto, 1985 Louis Rd., Palo Alto
THEME: "Serving and Praying for our Nation"
HYBRID Service - Join in person or on Zoom. (See Zoom info below.)

Peaceful Presence is sometimes hosted in-person, sometimes by Zoom, and sometimes hybrid (with both options - to join in person or via Zoom). Watch for updates!

Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice coordinates “Peaceful Presence” gatherings, a monthly prayer service on the evening of the 11^th of each month, offering a time of quiet multifaith prayers for peace and justice and strength for the journey. Each gathering is hosted by a different local faith community, includes contributions from diverse faith traditions, and has its own format and theme.

All are welcome: those of all faith traditions and of no defined faith, those who are suffering at the hands of their own government, those who need a pause in the midst of intensive work on behalf of others, and all who would like to pray with others for the well-being of all.  The prayer time will include elements from several religious traditions.

Upcoming: 
Monday, November 11 - hosted by First Congregational Church of Palo Alto, 1985 Louis Rd., Palo Alto
Wednesday, December 11 - hosted by Palo Alto Friends Meeting, 957 Colorado Ave, Palo Alto
Saturday, January 11 - hosted by Palo Alto Buddhist Temple, 2751 Louis Rd, Palo Alto 94303

9/11 Multifaith Peace Picnic and Prayers 2024

Did you miss the 2024 Multifaith Peace Picnic and Prayers? Or perhaps you just want to enjoy photos of some of the beautiful moments! 

These pictures were taken by Alfred Leung from ProBonoPhoto.org. To see the whole photo gallery of the event (with many other wonderful pictures!) click here.

From gathering in song...

to the candlelight vigil  

with moments of inspiration

             and calls to prayer from diverse faith traditions  

this annual gathering was filled

with words of peace and hope

opportunities to strengthen community

create friendships across differences

and take a few steps toward building  

the beloved community.

"Why I Couldn't Pray this Yom Kippur" by Rabbi Amy Eilberg

You are invited to read this thought-provoking reflection by Rabbi Amy Eilberg, a member of the MVPJ Steering Committee, printed in full in "Forward" on October 15, 2024:

A colleague recently reminded me that during the Vietnam War, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel told a journalist that he could not pray because whenever he opened a prayer book, he saw images of children burning from napalm. 

I don’t compare my own prayer practice to that of Rabbi Heschel, but I had a similar experience this Yom Kippur. Wherever I looked in the liturgy, I found myself wondering how many Gaza residents or Lebanese or Palestinians in the occupied West Bank the Israel Defense Forces had killed that day while we were all in synagogue.

Click here to read the full article in "Forward."

MVPJ Reflections after this year's 9/11 Multifaith Peace Picnic and Prayers

Over the past 10 years, Multifaith Voices for Peace & Justice (MVPJ) has been honored to partner with American Muslim Voice Foundation (AMV) and a multitude of varied other congregations, communities and organizations in sponsoring the annual 9/11 Multifaith Peace Picnic and Prayers. Our goals for this event, which are very much aligned with American Muslim Voice Foundation and all the other cosponsors, are to bring people together, share a meal, build new friendships, join in prayers for peace, and strengthen peace in our local community and our world. As AMV's motto says, "to move from fear to friendship."

Yet we live in deeply troubled times. This year the work of building peace is perhaps more challenging than ever. Sadly, just a day before the event, issues emerged that caused some organizations to withdraw their support of and participation in the 9/11 event. Without time to talk and work together on those issues, there has been hurt that needs attention and healing.

Nevertheless, the gathering on 9/11 this year was beautiful, with prayers, poems, words and songs for peace, laughter and hugs, food shared and community strengthened. We are deeply grateful for all who were there! We are sad that some felt they could not attend. We missed their presence. We respect that each made their own decision, and will work for better understanding as we move forward. Whether particular organizations cosponsored this event or not, we know we need one another to build the beloved community, and we pledge our solidarity to work together, as people and communities of diverse faiths, for peace and dignity, through good times and bad.

MVPJ’s commitment, along with AMV Foundation, is to peace and justice - even when it is hard. Peace when we all agree is beautiful. Peace when we differ, when we hurt, when we are scared, is hard. But we are called, from the foundational teachings of our own diverse faiths and traditions, to do this work. We pray that you will join us, along with others, to reclaim our common humanity and take the path of peace.

To view some photos from this year's event on our webpage, click here (or just scroll down!)

... and to save one life is to save the whole world

to destroy one life is to destroy the whole world,
and to save one life is to save the whole world
Jewish Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5, and Muslim Qur'an 5:32

As people of faith contemplating the horrendous violence in the Middle East, we are guided by the truth of this fundamental teaching which is found in both the Jewish and Muslim traditions, that to destroy one life is to destroy the whole world, and to save one life is to save the whole world.

We live in the reality of the destruction of thousands of lives in Israel and Gaza. We acknowledge the appalling massacre of 1,200 Israelis by Hamas on October 7, 2023 and the devastating war that has caused a humanitarian crisis in Gaza and has taken the lives of over 34,000 people there. We know that for the loved ones of each and every one of these individuals killed, it may surely be that their whole world is destroyed. With our hearts filled with sorrow and compassion, we say, “Enough!”

It is time for all of us, people of faith and goodwill everywhere, civilians and leaders alike, to embrace and follow the second part of this ancient and true wisdom: to save one life is to save the whole world. Let us, as a global community pledge ourselves to work with all of our being so that instead of destroying life, we can save one life, and then another, and then another, on the quest to save the whole world.

For the sake of both Palestine and Israel, and all human beings involved:

May Peaceful Presence: Grief and Hope

Our May 11, 2024 Peaceful Presence was hosted by the Palo Alto Friends Meeting.

All the contributions were very moving, heart-felt and spoken from deep places of love, especially in the midst of war. Here are links to music and videos and a text of a prayer that we can share.

We began and ended with musical excerpts from Karl Jenkins' "The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace." 

Eric Sabelman, a Friend (Quaker) shared a poem/prayer he had written in 2004. See "read more" for the words.

Other contributions were offered by Amy Ellberg (Jewish), Samina Sundas and Tehmina Zeb (Muslim) and Donna Baranski-Walker (Quaker).

Samina included this short video of an ABC News story about Dr. Mohammad Subeh, a Palestinian American medical doctor from the south bay who traveled to Gaza recently on a medical mission.

We also watch this video of interview clips of children from the Ramallah Friends School in the West Bank, created in March during a visit there by Quakers from the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

With gratitude to all of those who planned and contributed, let us pray and act for peace.

ACTION ALERT: Call Congress for Peace in the Middle East!

Call Your Congress Members to Urge Peace in the Middle East!

Emails are great, but it is even more powerful when you follow-up with phone calls. These are easy and quick, and very impactful! (If you feel a bit awkward on the phone, don't worry about it! These are super short calls and the staffers want to know what you think, not how polished you sound!)

Here is a suggested script from MVPJ, but remember to make it personal if you can. (You might add that you come from a particular faith community, OR that as a (parent, sister, brother, etc.) you can't imagine the suffering of family members whose loved ones are held or live in fear, OR you have visited the area, OR you have spiritual or other roots or connections to the region, etc.)

See below for phone numbers for U.S. Senators and Representatives in our area.

Hi, My name is ___________ from (city)_____________.

I am calling to urge Senator _________/Representative ___________ to publicly call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, including the return of Israeli hostages held in Gaza and Palestinians unfairly incarcerated in Israel. 

Right now there is an extremely urgent need for humanitarian aid to reach Gaza, and a ceasefire is necessary to get supplies in. I also hope the Senator/Representative will support restoring U.S. funding for UNRWA, the UN agency aiding Palestinian refugees. 

Israelis and Palestinians deserve to live in peace, security, freedom and dignity.

Please encourage Senator _________/Representative ___________ to urge the Administration to use all of its influence to acheive a ceasefire and negotiated solution, for the well-being of all the people in the region. 

Thank you.

(If you don't see them, click "read more" for phone numbers for your calls.)

Palestinian & Israeli Combatants for Peace: I am with you. I'm going to stay with you.

The American Friends of Combatants for Peace (CfP) shared via email some profound word and experiences of the bi-national (Israeli and Palestinian) Zoom support group this week:

Jamil, CfP’s Palestinian General Coordinator, began the conversation. He looked around the Zoom room at his Israeli friends and shared that it was hard to find the words to express his sorrow, shock, and grief about what Hamas had done.

“I can’t believe this. I am seeing these images, and I don’t want to believe they are real. I cannot hold back my tears. You are my friends, my family.” Other Palestinian activists echoed words of care to Israeli members:

“I am with you. I’m going to stay with you.” 

“I wish I could see you and hold you.”

At the start of the conversation, it was hard not to speak from “sides” about the pain, needs, and remorse for the violence coming from each society. After some time, Yonatan, CfP’s Israeli Executive Director, reflected, “We are talking as if we belong to the extreme parts of our communities, but we belong to each other. We chose each other. We are not our societies; we are humans.”

Prayers for Peace and Responses to war between Israel and Gaza

Words seem inadequate when deeds are so horrific as to defy the ability to string together anything that can ease the pain, lessen the fear, defuse the anger, and move the broken and wounded to doing anything other than striking back. Yet as people of faith committed to peace, we must speak words of compassion and solidarity, aloud and in silent prayer, as well as seek actions that foster healing, justice and peace.

In the face of shocking and deadly attacks by Hamas against civilians in Israel and the Israeli military response to those attacks, adding violence to violence, we grieve for each and every human being lost, wounded, suffering loss, and despairing the coming nights and days of uncertainty and pain.

We pray for the violence to cease and for the world to come together to support all who have been harmed and bring a lasting peace to a land that has suffered too much for too long. Within our own communities and nation, we commit to stand against antisemtic, anti-Arab, and anti-Muslim occurence or rhetoric of any kind, and work for relationships of respect, open-heartedness and healing. Although war often leads us to think in terms of "us" and "them," we know from the very nature of our organization, that coming together in the richness of diversity is the only path to peace.

Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice continues steadfast in our work and prayers for peace with justice, most passionately in times of violence, oppression and war.

ACTION: We urge you to join with the Friends Committee on National Legislation (Quaker-based) in their call to our U.S. government to act to de-escalate the violence. Click here to TAKE ACTION NOW and send a letter to your Senators and Congress Representative. Their website makes this easy, and personalizing the letter can make it even more effective.

Peace with Justice: We affirm these words from Rabbi Jill Jacobs, CEO of T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights. "We mourn and we pray for the safety of everyone in harm's way... We know that a true and lasting peace will not be acheived until there is a just, negotiated political solution that protects the human rights of everyone." 

Contribute and Support: Here we highlight a few organizations, mostly led by both Palestinians and Israelis who are working for healing, justice and peace. We offer links for you to consider making donations or supporting in other ways.

Parents Circle - building peace and reconciliation with bereaved Jewish and Palestinian families through dialogue.

Rebuilding Alliance - dedicated to rebuilding war-torn communities. Currently their NGO partners in Gaza are delivering food and hygiene supplies.

New Israel Fund - prodemocracy organization in Israel already mobilized with war relief.

UNRWA-UN - relief for Palestinian refugees - is already established in Gaza.

IsraAid - partnering with local and civil society organizations to coordinate humanitarian efforts, providing psychosocial support and urgent aid. International NGO.

Gisha - protecting the freedom of movement for Palestinians, especially in Gaza.

Listen, Learn and Pray: Below are links to various organizations that include Muslim, Jews and Christians, with statements offering their insight and perspectives from their own experience. MVPJ does not advocate any specific statement or response. We offer these with the prayer that we can learn from one another, even when we disagree.