Tony Blair Faith Foundation

Tomorrow, February 1st is the beginning of the second annual World Interfaith Harmony Week as proclaimed in the Autumn of 2010 by the General Assembly of the United Nations. The week has a simple mandate to be a time of interfaith activities that recognize the diversity of our human family of spirituality and to bring us together in fellowship and community. My thoughts and prayers for each of you are that this will be a blessed time where ever you are and that you will make at least one friend who has a different spiritual path than your own.

Hospitality, the sharing of food with strangers, has always been a sacred act. Regardless of the tradition, to share your abundance with those in need, or those who visit, is a special time of spiritual community. Using the simple model of hospitality, Rabbi Rami Shapiro and I came together to ask others around the world, regardless of where they are or their circumstances, to come together to share a simple meal and a spiritual practice with others.

Beginning on the first of February and lasting for seven days, individuals just like yourself will pick one day and invite friends into their home, neighbours into their places of spiritual worship and practice, or communities into public buildings so that people of all faiths can gather together. The breakfasts (or lunches or dinners) will simple or they can be fancy. The spiritual practices will be prayers from different traditions or they will be artists demonstrating sacred song and dance. Each meal will have its own personality.

Last year there were over fifty registered World Interfaith Harmony Breakfasts taking place on five continents around the world. This year we are hoping and praying for more. Regardless of the numbers, each one will be a sacred time that will help us live a little more peacefully in the world. I look forward to hearing about your World Interfaith Harmony Breakfast.

Reverend Tim Miner OUnI, chaplain, Washington D.C. USA