USD Community Channels Peace during 30th All Faith Service

The warm glow of six candles illuminated the aisle inside the Kroc School Peace and Justice Theatre Thursday afternoon as an audience of students, faculty, staff and administrators looked on in reverence. Each candle was carried to the stage by an individual representing a unique faith tradition and served as the opening ceremonial piece of USD’s 30th All Faith Service, “Channeling Peace.”

“The All Faith Service is a most beautiful and incredibly meaningful USD tradition,” says Vice President for Mission Integration Michael Lovette-Colyer, PhD. “It is a celebration of the religious diversity present in our community and an embodiment of our profound respect for diversity of all kinds.” 

The event featured a Buddhist meditation on living-kindness by Vasu Bandhu; Jewish ideas of peace and nonviolence by Glenda Sacks Jaffe; a Hindu chant by Associate Dean of Faculty and Accreditation Priya Kannan, PhD, and her daughters, Shree and Avani Narasimhan; an indigenous prayer offering from Sahmie Wytewa, MEd, USD’s tribal liaison and a member of the Hopi Tribe; a Muslim prayer reading by Professor of Theology and Religious Studies Bahar Davary, PhD; and a Christian reflection by Fr. Garrett Galvin, OFM, the president and rector for the Franciscan School of Theology. The service also featured the USD Choral Scholars under the direction of Emilie Amrein.

The inaugural All-Faith Service was held in The Immaculata on Fri., Jan. 28, 1994. Under the guidance of then-Reverend Msgr. Brent Eagen, vice president for Mission and Ministry, the service was designed to kick off the spring semester similar to how the Mass of the Holy Spirit begins the fall semester.

Channeling Peace was a perfect theme for the 30th installment of the service — Eagen had drawn inspiration for the first All-Faith Service from St. Pope John Paul II’s convening of the first-ever World Day of Prayer for Peace in 1986. 

“That gathering in Assisi, Italy, motivated Eagen to imagine a similar interreligious gathering for our community,” Lovette-Colyer says. “This year’s theme takes us back to where we started — coming together to, in John Paul's words, ‘discover anew’ that when it comes to peace, ‘there is something which binds us together.’”  

— Story and photos by Matthew Piechalak; Video by Alé Delgado