prayer for peace

Terry Jones, the pastor who threatened to burn copies of the Quran at his Gainesville, Fla., church today, the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, might have wisely changed his mind in light of worldwide outrage. But that didn’t stop a candlelight prayer vigil at Eugene’s United Methodist Church on Friday, scheduled earlier in the week to speak out against the proposed book burning.

“We are very thankful to learn that those who were intending to burn the Quran have decided to cancel,” said the church’s senior pastor, Debbie Pitney. Still, the church decided to go on with the vigil attended by about 75 people “because hate speech has filled the airwaves this past week,” she said. “Burning the Quran is absolutely unacceptable to us. The best religious practice is kindness.”

The vigil drew local clergy and members of several faiths, from Lutherans to Jews to Muslims to one woman who said she was Wiccan. They held small white candles and sang songs, led by guitar-wielding associate pastor John Pitney.

They sang, “A salaam, a shalom,” the Arabic and Hebrew words for peace, respectively. They listened to Ibrahim Hamide, the Eugene restaurateur and Muslim who is president of the Eugene Middle East Peace Group and a member of the city of Eugene’s human rights commission.

“You know what I wish for?” said Hamide, holding a copy of the Quran. “I wish that this picture is beamed through the television screens of every Muslim home around the world. Because your presence is powerful and speaks volumes. These moments are special. This is interfaith and love at its best.”

Alice Kaseberg, a United Methodist Church member, told a story about how she went to Barnes & Noble after getting a gift certificate last Christmas, and bought two books.

One, she could not remember.

The other was a paperback copy of the Quran. She pulled it out this week, as news of the intended Quran burning in Florida dominated headlines and newscasts, and was astounded at how many times Moses and other names from the Bible are mentioned in it.

She read a passage:

“What thinkest thou of him who treateth our religion as a lie? He it is who trusteth away the orphan, and stirrest not others up to feed the poor. Woe to those who pray, but in their prayer are careless; who make a shew of devotion, but refuse help to the needy.”

After the vigil she expressed her outrage over Jones’ proposed book burning.

“This is what he’s trying to burn?” Kaseberg said, waving her copy of the Quran, reciting more names from it that are also in the Bible. “He’s trying to burn this common heritage? How ridiculous!”

Barbara Carter, who moved to Eugene with her husband, Tom, in 2003, told of being at their northern Virginia United Methodist Church right after Sept. 11, 2001, and how a man came from a local mosque.

“I don’t remember what the man said,” Carter recalled. “But what struck me is there are good people (of all faiths) in America. So I do think there’s hope, because we are all good people.”

Hamide then spoke one last time.

“I am totally touched, humbled, melting like a candle, and I’m supposed to say a prayer,” he said. With that, he read what he wrote “from the heart” earlier Friday.

“Lord God, we pray that you guide us out of our righteousness into yours. Give us compassion that we may fulfill each other’s need rather than respond to our shortcomings. Let our diversity be a source of our strength and open our hearts that we may recognize it. Let us be healers through your mercy. Forgive us so that we remember to forgive. Give us of your bounty that we may give to the bountiless.

“And we beseech you to heal our hearts and to fill them with your peace that we become peace­makers for they are blessed.

“Amen.”