Abridged Report, click here
On July 29th, 2020, amidst the global pandemic that had sickened millions around the world, Holy Land Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Sufi, and Druze faith leaders joined together on Zoom from the Holy Land to pray for the peace, health, and safety of all in the world.
“We [are] still facing little bit challenges in our lives, everywhere all around the world…and this time is to connect and to unite all of our hearts together, to be together, and to come to pray together,” said Sheikh Ghassan Manasra, in his opening comments.
David Less, Co-Hosting the Call, spoke to the act of prayer itself.
“In the question of prayer, we each have our own way, our own inner way, but if you really wish to know prayer just look at the screen and see all these beautiful faces. These are all the faces of the One that we’re praying to who has presence that we can all feel. And that’s what we’re doing today.
“We’re loving each other, and that’s our prayer.
We’re knowing each other and that’s our prayer.
We’re feeling each other and that’s our prayer.
Heart to heart and soul to soul, that’s our prayer.”
Rabbi Or Zohar, Reform Rabbi of the Misgav Region in the Central Galilee, composes and offers sacred music with his wife Feliza. He joined our zoom call with his guitar and offered a prayer of peace.
[Click to listen]
Next we were joined from Palestine by Sheikh Abukhalil (Nasr) Al-Tamimi, president of the International Movement for Peace and Coexistence (IMPAC), who thanked the Abrahamic Reunion for “the opportunity for me to strengthen the connection between the Abrahamic faiths and relations.”
He prayed in Arabic, translated by Sheikh Ghassan:
“In the name of God, and in the prayer of all the prophets all around the world, we begin our prayer.
We feel at this time gratitude and the greatness of the greatest messengers and prophets.
And by their faith they succeeded to face all the pandemics and all the challenges around the world and they succeeded to save all the people.
Noah, and Abraham, and Moses, Jesus and Mohamad,
Oh God, for all the people,
God, lead us to the righteous way, and the way of true faith,
And make us guide people on the way of the prophets and messengers,
God keep us in the true faith,
God, keep us away from the lying and the bad deeds,
God make us from the people of peace and justice,
Don’t make us from the people of the bad values and conflict,
God, heal us and make us complete,
And God, protect us from all the bad things all the way around the world.
Make us complete in our end in the true faith,
God, guide these people if they spread the pandemic with their intention or not, guide them to the right way,
And we ask you for us and for all of humanity protection,
And we ask for us and for them and for all of humanity your protection,
God by you we ask you to protect us and to be with us and to complete us, we trust you and you will give us the best in this world. AMIN.”
Siham Halabi, AR Co-Founder and Druze Peacemaker from Daliat al-Carmel, spoke to the days prior to Eid al-Adha, the Muslim Holiday marking the sacrifice of Abraham and the culmination of the pilgrimage, and how they are the holiest days of the year to her. “They help us to remember the creation of God, and connect us to God…these 10 days (before Eid) we do a lot for the poor people, and during this time God will duplicate your reward if you will do good things for other people.” Her prayer:
God make every hard thing so simple for all of us, and open the gates for all of us, and make everything so simple for us to connect with everything all around us.
God, make my faith and belief in you my path to love and to you, and protect me from every bad thing that will capture me.
God, be with me in any situation, and protect me at the most deep and the most dark time, protect me God.
God, bless our work, and accept it from us.
God, make us from these people that you get them and open the gates to come to you.
Oh God, you open the gates of mercy, and you close the gates of darkness, and you open our hearts, please open everything for us and make us part of the people and part of you.
We trust God, and we know nothing can defeat God, God will win everything, amin amin.
Umm Bra’a Najah Kabaha in Nazareth said during this time that “if you cannot go to Mecca to make the pilgrimage, it’s very important to mention takbir, ‘Allahu Akbar’”. She chanted for the group takbir and other prayers, as a remembrance that “God is the Greatest, and these days we appreciate everything that God sent us.” She prayed in Arabic (translated):
God, you solve all the problems and all the challenges, please solve our problem and our pandemic, and make our connection with our beloved people so strong, don’t make them go away from us.
God, O Protector, protect us, and please, remove all this pandemic from all of us.
God, you are the lord of the wide protection and the lord of the great gratitude and lots of things that you give us, please don’t remove your revelation from us and be in connection with us
God, we thank you and send us all these things that you promised us that you will protect us, and we wait for your help and your healing, in the name of all the prophets and the prophet Mohamad.
Amin.
Next we heard from Deacon Jiries Mansour, AR Co-Founder in Rame in the Galilee, an education official and headmaster of St. Anthony’s Middle School, how happy he was to be with brothers and sisters of many faiths. “I’m remembering the New Testament tells us, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”
“From the Galilee, from the North of Israel, I send my love, I send my prayer for everybody in the world, because we are all of us the sons of Abraham, all of us are brothers. It’s not important the colors, or the religions, the important thing for the human being is that we believe in one God, that we must help our brothers, and today I want to pray today to God to save us from the Coronavirus, to save us from the war, in this world, and to save us to stay in good life in our to be good family, to be good friends, to be good brothers.
O great Father you are our Lord and you are our hope
Our situation is very dangerous and very challenging
Yes, we are in the time of coronavirus, it can really bother all the lives of all the human beings
But the most dangerous thing than the pandemic is our hatred of one another, and our jealousies from one to another
We ask you to change our hearts to be one heart, and to have one thinking to all of us, and to be close to you and to be close to one another
Don’t give us hard economical or political or sociological lives to us
Oh lord, put us under your fatherly protection,
Give us the holy health, and protect us and keep us away from all these pandemics,
And give all the world the gift peace safety and hope for all the people,
You are our place and you are our protection and our hope,
At this hard time,
Don’t keep us away from you, look at us in love and harmony.
Amin.
He closed by saying, “The Abrahamic Reunion it’s one family, one love, one big heart, we love you.”
David Less spoke passionately about prayer, and unity, before holding a silence for each person to prayer in the depths of their own hearts:
“Some of us are really old friends, and this is a living example of God. God is the friend within all of us, and sometimes when we pray to the Lord we forget that the Lord, the God, the power, the Ruler is within every human being.
Every human being is the child of God, there’s nobody, nobody on this planet, good or bad, that is not the child of God. Each of us, each of our souls belongs to God, each of our souls is God, and there’s nothing that exists that’s not God.
All the shadows, all the seeming things, they’re just not real, and we have to go to our truth, each one of us, that our prayer whatever way we pray will be heard because it will, because it comes from our heart, we’re not just saying empty words. Each word, each sound has power and love and it will be heard and it will be felt.
Lookit, today there are 40 of us here each with our own tradition and our own way, and yet as everybody said we are one family, and we are a family that has power.
You know Allahu Akbar, this phrase, it doesn’t just mean God is great, it means God is greater — any problem that arises, God is greater, and it will be overcome, we will prevail. Because the truth is the only thing that exists, the truth is the only thing that’s real, everything else fades away.
Sheikh Ghassan closed the meeting saying, “We belong to our father Abraham, and the people say no we don’t, and I say no problem, we belong to Adam, Adam and Eve, we came from there, and then we are the same family.”
“Today I had a very long day of connection and discussion about the prayers about the pilgrimage and so on and many Muslims began to cry, they said “Look at the Kaaba in Mecca, it’s empty!” and I laughed I said, “No, it’s not empty, open your external eyes, open your internal eyes, you will see yourself there, all of us we are there, all the people who make everything.
“Don’t think that it will stop, if you will prepare something to stop something, God prepares the other things to make it alive, and to make your heart alive. Keep your hearts enlivened, and enliven your life, your taste, you will be in connection with the rest of the people around the world and make them part of you and you will feel it.
“We love you, thank you all, it was a very deep prayer, thanks for all the clergy, thanks for all the leaders that were with us, and thank you all who were here with us, but tonight, we promise you, you were here with us in all our hearts.”
