Sabbath Event Promotes Diversity, Peace

January 26, 2007

Author: David Crumm

Source: Detroit Free Press

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070126/NEWS03/701260421/1001/BUSINESS05

In a year of heightened religious tensions across metro Detroit, the area's premiere interfaith worship festival continues to expand.

At 7 p.m. Saturday, more than 600 people from a dozen faiths are expected to pack Christ Church Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills for the 8th World Sabbath of Religious Reconciliation.

"This has become such an important event that we've agreed this year to have a one-hour television version of this event broadcast later on local cable TV systems," the Rev. Edward Mullins, rector of Christ Church Cranbrook and a cofounder of the event, said Thursday.

The Sabbath services are showcases of spiritual diversity, this year featuring speakers and musicians from a dozen different religious traditions. The liturgy is designed to highlight religious teachings that promote peace.

In recent years, Mullins and the other World Sabbath cofounder, the Rev. Rodney Reinhardt of Blue Island, Ill., have been invited to global interfaith conferences in Africa and England to promote their idea to other religious leaders.