Interfaith Service to Honor Dalai Lama's Visit

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The religious diversity of Western New York will be celebrated with an interfaith service to be held at the University at Buffalo in honor of the three-day visit to UB by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

The one-hour service, which will allow representatives of many faiths to reflect on the meaning and cultivation of peace within ourselves, our community and the world at large, will be held at 4 p.m. on Sept. 18 in Alumni Arena on the UB North (Amherst) Campus. It will be hosted by UB's Campus Ministries Association.

Tickets for the interfaith service may be purchased at the Alumni Arena ticket office, which will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with extended hours to 7 p.m. on Sept. 12 and 13. The ticket price is $15.

A leading advocate of interfaith dialogue, the Dalai Lama frequently participates in interfaith gatherings, and specifically requested that his visit to UB include an interfaith service.

In addition to remarks by the Dalai Lama, the service will feature readings of texts from various religious traditions by students in the UB Department of Theatre and Dance.

Jeannette M. Ludwig, associate professor of romance languages and literatures and co-chair of the interfaith prayer service with the Rev. Msgr. J. Patrick Keleher, director of Catholic Campus Ministry, The Newman Centers @ UB, describes the interfaith service "incredibly important and meaningful."

"This is a great honor and a unique opportunity for those who participate," she said. "It is very exciting to see how people have responded so generously to a genuine religious icon from a very small and beleaguered place."

The service will open with a processional of dignitaries, a platform party made up of leaders and representatives of the faith communities of the greater Buffalo community and children from the community. They will be accompanied by music performed by Nawang Khechog, a master of the Tibetan flute.

The local religious leaders expected to share the dais with His Holiness include: Imam Fajri Ansari, The Islamic Society of Niagara Frontier; the Rev. Bronwen Boswell, Presbytery of Western New York; the Right Rev. J. Michael Garrison, Episcopal Diocese of Western New York; Dr. Brydon Grant, Spiritual Assembly of Baha'is; Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede, Rochester Zen Center; the Most Rev. Edward U. Kmiec, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo; Oren Lyons, Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse); the Rev. Frances Manly, Unitarian Universalist Congregations of Western New York; the Rev. Darius G. Pridgen, True Bethel Baptist Church; Pandit O. V. Ranganathan, Hindu Cultural Society of Western New York; Rabbi Harry Rosenfeld, Buffalo Board of Rabbis; Dr. Surjit Singh, Niagara Frontier Sikh Society; the Rev. Richard A. Stenhouse, Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church; and Susan Tannehill, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).

The service will open with a Native American welcome ritual in recognition that the Haudenosaunee were the first people of Western New York.

The readings that follow, which Keleher said he hopes participants will consider to be more of a "conversation," will be accompanied by brief interpretive dance pieces performed by theatre and dance students to punctuate the readings. Several readings will take place in their original language, followed by their English translation.

The interfaith prayer service will conclude with music by the Nu Revelation Choir from True Bethel Baptist Church of Buffalo, under the direction of Elder Craig Pierce.

In addition to Keleher and Ludwig, members of the Interfaith Service Steering Committee are: The Rev. Tim Ashton; William Barba, clinical professor and chair of educational leadership and policy; Vijay Chakravarthy; Meimanat Grant; Brydon Grant; the Rev. Bruce Mckay; Rabbi Jerry Seidler; Surjit Singh; Sawsan Tabbaa; Agnes Williams and Barry White, lecturer in American studies. The Rev. Butch Mazur and the Rev. Stan Bratton of the Network of Religious Communities, also contributed to the planning process.

Student members of the committee are Jeffrey Chow, Laurel Flynn, Damien Mikunas, Justin Frost and Balbir Singh.