1988 Peace Walk for International Day of Peace and Opening UN General Assembly, Sep 20

Filed under 2 or more | Peace walk/run for UN | UN Anniversaries

PEACE WALK: PRAYERFUL PRELUDE TO GENERAL ASSEMBLY

If peace is to be found in Manhattan, it will most likely be at 5:00 AM. So some forty UN and mission staff and other early-rising peace-lovers chose 5 AM to embark on a meditative seven-mile walk through Manhattan on 20 September to celebrate the opening of the General Assembly and the International Day of Peace. In the uncommon pre-dawn stillness, the walkers offered a moment of silent prayer for peace as they stood before the gates of the UN, then headed north on First Avenue, bearing miniature UN and national flags and singing songs dedicated to world peace.

This third annual peace walk was co-sponsored by the Permanent Missions of the:

Bahamas, Belize,
Burkina Faso, China,
Mauritius, Nigeria, St Kitts and Nevis,
Sri Lanka and Yugoslavia, and by
Sri Chinmoy: The Peace Meditation at the United Nations
in co-operation with the Sri Chinmoy Centre of New York.

More walkers joined the group at various meeting points on the route and, by the time they returned to UN headquarters at 8:00 AM, almost 100 individuals had participated, including five members of the Permanent Mission of China who went the whole distance.

Televsion crews traced the progress of the walkers as they made their way through the wakening New York streets, and the event was seen on the evening news.

Following the walk, a prayer breakfast Was held in the Church Center across the street from the Secretariat