9/11 remembrance service at Trinity Church on Sept. 11 with representatives from three faith traditions

Representatives from the Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths will take part in a 9/11 remembrance service at Trinity Church in Menlo Park at 5:00 pm on Sunday, Sept. 11, which is the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. All interested community members are invited to attend.

“Our hope is not only to provide a simple prayer service to allow members of the community to pause, remember, reflect and pray for healing, but also to demonstrate that members of the Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities can come together in a way that promotes healing and peace,” said the Rev. Matthew Dutton-Gillett, rector of Trinity. “It is this kind of unity that must happen more broadly if a more peaceful world is to be possible.”

The service will include prayers and brief readings from the sacred scriptures of all three faith traditions and feature music from John Phillip Newell’s work, Chanting for Peace. At the end of the service, everyone will be invited to light a candle and move to the outdoor Peace Pole where they can leave their candle at the base of the Pole as a symbol of longing for peace.

In addition to Trinity clergy, participants include:

• Rabbi Patricia Karlin-Neumann is Senior Associate Dean for Religious Life at Stanford University. She is Stanford’s first chaplain from a tradition other than Christianity and is presently coordinating President Obama’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge at Stanford.
• Rabbi Paul Shleffar is Founder and Director of the Center for Contemporary Jewish Spirituality. He is a dedicated student and teacher of traditional Jewish texts with emphasis on the Chasidic and Jewish mystical traditions.
• Shahzad Chowdry is representing the Muslim community. An electrical engineer by profession, Chowdry is part of the ING’s Islamic Speaker Bureau, which is an outreach organization that promotes interreligious understanding.

Trinity Church, an Episcopal community, is located at 330 Ravenswood (corner of Laurel) in Menlo Park.