14.05.2020
Dublin Faith Leaders Unite for Interfaith Prayer Service
Faith leaders who are represented by Dublin City Interfaith Forum joined people of all faiths around the world to pray that humanity overcome the coronavirus today (Thursday May 14). As part of the global initiative at the invitation of Pope Francis, Dublin City Interfaith Forum live streamed an Interfaith Prayer Service on their Facebook page.
All seven faiths involved in DCIF – Bahá’í, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism – were involved including both the Church of Ireland and the Catholic Archbishops of Dublin, Dr Michael Jackson and Dr Diarmuid Martin.
Speaking about the service, Archbishop Jackson said: “The global pandemic which has been named coronavirus COVID 19 remains with us. It retains its devastating capacity to destroy individual lives and therefore to shatter families and communities. It respects no distinctions of race, gender or Faith.”
He continued: “The initiative of the Dublin Inter Faith Forum took up an invitation extended by Pope Francis to people of faith everywhere to offer a reading and a prayer each from within her/his tradition in this time of human crisis. The hope is that peaceful offering will build shared solidarity based on common humanity.
“Those of us who have been invited to participate in this initiative in Dublin are honoured to be asked to do so. In our participation, we ask people across Ireland to set aside divisions and prejudices and to pray for one another and for people everywhere offering hope in the midst of fear. Please pray and please stay at home and please remain safe.”
The Archbishop took as his text 1 Corinthians 13.13: “There are three things that last for ever: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love.”
“Faith in ourselves is very important at a time when we are fearful, when we are sick and when we are alone. Hope in a way through to the other side of the situation that surrounds us, hope in a vaccine most of all, is something that binds us all together. Love of our neighbour, near or far from us, gives expression to the ways in which our faith, our belief connect with our empathy and our longing to care for others with great and lasting kindness. While people have genuinely done wonderful things in this time, nobody would have wished this time to come upon us. People of faith have the opportunity to connect their own Faith with a humanity of need and a humanity of response,” he said.
You can read the full text of the Archbishop’s message here.
You can watch the service here:
Find DCIF on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/dublincityinterfaithforum