Interfaith Prayer Breakfast for opening of 56th Session UN General Assembly, 2001 Sep 06

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SRI CHINMOY: THE PEACE MEDITATION AT THE UNITED NATIONS

INTERFAITH PRAYER BREAKFAST

FOR THE OPENING OF THE 56TH SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

6 September 2001

Programme

Musical Invocation	Premik Russell Tubbs
Master of Ceremonies	Dr. Kusumita P. Pedersen
Silent Meditation	All present
Song for Peace	The Singers of The Peace Meditation
Welcome	HE. Dr. Anastase Gasana, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Rwanda to the United Nations

The Leaders in Prayer:

BUDDHISM

The Reverend Susan Ji-on Postal

Founder and Teacher

The Reverend Jane Dai-on Shuman

The Empty Hand Zendo, Rye, New York

CHRISTIANITY

Dr. Vince Comiskey and Jane Comiskey

NGO Representatives

Pax Christi International

HINDUISM

Sri Swami Dayananda Saraswati

Founder

Arsha Vidya Ashram and Arsha Vidya Gurukulam

ISLAM

Shayk Dr. Ibrahim Abdul-Malik

Secretary

Imams Council of New York

NGO Representative

Admiral Family Circle Islamic Community

JUDAISM

Yitzhak Buxbaum

Maggid and Author

Closing Musical Invocation

Breakfast will be served.

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Spirituality is not merely tolerance. It is not even acceptance. It is the feeling of a universal oneness. In our spiritual life, we look upon the

Divine not only in terms of our own God, but in terms of everybody else’s God. Our spiritual life firmly and securely establishes the basis of unity in diversity. Spirituality is not hospitality to the other’s faith in God.

It is the absolute recognition of the other’s faith in God as one’s own.

-Sri Chinmoy

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THE HOST OF THE INTERFAITH PRAYER BREAKFAST

His Excellency Dr. ANASTASE GASANA is the Permanent Representative of the Republic of Rwanda to the United Nations. He received his doctorate from the Sorbonne and had a distinguished university career before entering public service. A leader of the Movement for Democracy (MDR) in Rwanda, he held a number of offices before being appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and also served as Ambassador to the United States. He has been Chairman of six national Commisssions and Minister of Institutional Relations. He also was instrumental in the creation of the Conflicts Resolution Center for Development in Africa.

THE LEADERS IN PRAYER

SHAYK DR. IBRAHIM ABDUL-MALIK is the Secretary of the Imams Council of New York, and an NGO Representative for the Admiral Family Circle Islamic Community, an NGO with Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC. He received his Ph.D. in Education from Harvard

University. As a science advisor to UNESCO he organized the first junior college in the

Republic of Maldives. He has worked with the New York City school system and taught at Baruch College and City College of CUNY. Shayk Abdul-Malik is a therapist and the director of the Centre for Empowerment and Personal Growth. He is the author of several books.

YITZHAK BUXBAUM is a Maggid or traditional Jewish teacher and storyteller who specializes in mysticism, Hasidism and stories of the Hasidic tradition. He is the author of seven books on Jewish spirituality, including Jewish Spiritual Practices, An Open Heart: The Mystic Path ofLoving People, and Storytelling and Spirituality in Judaism. He teaches at the New School as well as synagogues and Jewish centers. Yitzhak Buxbaum is a disciple of the renowned composer and spiritual teacher Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach of blessed memory.

VINCE and JOAN COMISKEY have represented the Catholic Peace Movement Pax Christi International at the United Nations for a combined total of seventeen years, providing leadership as advocates for peace and justice issues in the wider NGO community. Vince received his Ph.D. in Education at Rutgers University and has taught special education at Long Island University and Fairleigh Dickenson University. He consults to the Child Study Team of the Bergen, New Jersey, Office of Special Services. Joan is a Geriatric Nurse Practitioner and teacher of nurses. She is active with the NGO Committee of UNICEF.

SRI SWAMI DAYANANDA SARASWATI is an internationally renowned teacher of Vedanta in the tradition of Adi Shankara and Veda Vyasa. He was one of the preeminent Hindu leaders at the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders in 2000. The Arsha Vidya Ashram, Arsha Vidya Gurukulam and other centers he has established are found throughout India and abroad. Many of the students of Swami Dayananda, trained by him in courses he has designed, are now swamis and respected teachers of Vedanta themselves. Among the humanitarian efforts he has supported and initiated is the All India Movement for Seva, inaugurated in November 2000. This November in Delhi Swami Dayananda will convene an interfaith conference to form a Congress for the Preservation of Religious Diversity.

THE REVEREND SUSAN JI-ON POSTAL is the founder and teacher of the Empty Hand Zendo in Rye, New York. She was ordained as a Zen priest in 1988 by her late teacher, Maurine Myo-on Stuart Roshi of the Cambridge Buddhist Association. THE REVEREND JANE DAI-ON SHUMAN is Susan’s senior disciple, and was ordained by Susan in 1997. They state, “Our Dharma ‘grandfathers’ were Japanese Buddhist lineage holders. We continue to practice wholeheartedly, respecting and honoring our heritage, but ever responsive to the unfolding of this moment, the demands of these present conditions, as we enter the 21st century.”