EVENT PHOTO GALLERY
updated September 18, 2008
August 19, 2008

United Nations Peace Plaza

All are invited to join with people around the world in celebrating the United Nations International Day of Peace on Sunday, September 21 with a peace vigil from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on the United Nations Peace Plaza at Lexington and Walnut just off the Independence Square. This event is free and will take place rain or shine.

A prayer for peace will be offered and a new peace candle will be lit at the top of every hour. There will be music throughout the vigil. Speakers will include:

• 8:30 a.m.  Jay Sjerven, President of Greater Kansas City United Nations Association
• 9:30 a.m.  Jim Everett, Greater Kansas City United Nations Association
• 10:30 a.m.  Dr. Shaheen Ahmed, Crescent Peace Society
• 11:30 a.m.  Ira Harritt, American Friends Society
• 12:30 p.m.  Andrew Bolton, Apostle and Peace and Justice Ministries Coordinator for Community of Christ
• 1:00-1:30 p.m.  Daily Prayer for Peace (on the Peace Plaza and in the Temple)
• 1:40 p.m.  Sharon Hannah, Community Mediation Center
• 2:30 p.m.  Jim Hannah, Truman Heartland Habitat for Humanity
• 3:30 p.m.  Lewis Diuguid, Vice President and columnist at The Kansas City Star
• 4:30 p.m.  David Mason, Community of Christ Network Advocating Justice and Peace
• 5:30 p.m.  representative, Community Services League
• 7:30 p.m.  Rev. Pat Miller, President of the Independence Ministerial Alliance

From 1 to 1:30 p.m. all are welcome to join the Daily Prayer for Peace in the Community of Christ Temple, where a public prayer service is offered each day at 1 p.m. On Peace Day, every participant will light a candle during this worship.

Two American Friends Service Committee exhibits that raise awareness about the human and economic costs of war will be on site. “Eye’s Wide Open” features the boots of soldiers, each with the name of a soldier from Missouri or Kansas who died in the Iraq war. “Cost of War” is a series of banners contrasting actual dollars spent on war with what that funding could have provided for other needs.

In the United Nations Secretary-General's message regarding the International Day of Peace (www.un.org/events/peaceday/2007/sgmessage.shtml) he asks everyone, wherever they are, to observe a minute of silence at noon.

According to http://internationaldayofpeace.org/ the International Day of Peace, also called Peace Day, “provides an opportunity for individuals, organizations and nations to create practical acts of peace on a shared date. It was established by a United Nations resolution in 1981 to coincide with the opening of the General Assembly. The first Peace Day was celebrated in September 1982. …By creating the International Day of Peace, the UN devoted itself to worldwide peace and encouraged all of mankind to work in cooperation for this goal.”

Join with others in Independence, Missouri, on September 21 to send a signal of our universal desire for peace.