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Third Annual Interfaith Peace Walk Aims To Bring Together Different Faiths
By: Atish Baidya
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Members of the Athens and Ohio University communities are expected to take to the streets Wednesday evening in an expression of peace and unity on the 12th anniversary of the attacks of 9/11.
This is the third year for the 9/11 interfaith peace walk organized by United Campus Ministry (UCM) as part of its “Better Together” campaign.
“I think since 9-11 whenever anybody has said religious difference or religious diversity the image that pops into peoples head is of the horrible events of that day,” UCM minister Evan Young said. “They think of religious difference as a problem they think of religious traditions as separated by gulfs we cannot bridge and I believe there is another way.”
Young said students seem to intuitively understand and identify with the idea that people’s differences are outweighed by their commonalities.
“Students get that,” Evan said. “They grasp that there is a commonality to people's struggles and there is value in sharing stories and making connections and learning what other people go to their faith with; the kinds of questions the kinds of struggles they take with them.”
The Interfaith Peace Walk begins at 7 p.m. at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepard on University Terrace and ends at the Islamic Center on Stewart Street.