IPSC’s Peace In The Park Festival

On October 9th, 2016 Interfaith Partners of South Carolina presented “Peace in the Park” a festival/celebration at Saluda Shoals Park in Columbia, SC, a perfect venue for this event. As promised there was fun for all ages! Art, crafts, music, dance, entertainment, nature walks, and an art contest for young people! Ten different religions each had an activity area for crafts and games, the Commons area featured music and dance – both performing and participative, and many people enjoyed the nature trails with a local birder-naturalist, the afternoon topped it off with a giant spiral dance. Hundreds of people from many religious traditions came to celebrate peace, harmony, respect and dignity.

The weather was perfect although hurricane Matthew had reached even this far inland on Friday and Saturday, there was not much damage in evidence and the mood was celebratory! I arrived late in the afternoon due to a speaking engagement earlier in the day. This year featured a youth art contest organized by Dr. Will Moreau Goins and his dedicated team. Dr. Goins is the current president of IPSC and has dedicated his life to preserving, presenting and performing Native American music traditions, beadwork and storytelling. He weaves the ancient past, mythology and the present with dramatic narratives and song. He was the 2008 Recipient for Native American Traditions in South Carolina’s Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Awards. The Peace in the Park art competition showcased some wonderful work from a very diverse sampling of young people.

Of great personal delight for me was the strong presence of the Sikh community. I knew almost nothing about them before attending the Parliament of the World’s Religions which my wife Chris and I participated in Salt Lake City, UT October of last year. The Sikhs fed more than 7,000 of us each day. They have done so for each of the modern Parliaments and 150 of them flew in from England to support the 2015 event. My talk at UUC Columbia was about the Parliament and I was pleased to tell a number of Sikhs about my experience with Langar (the name for ritually prepared meals served as an offering of service) and how one of my slides featured a picture of their Golden Temple at Amritsar where they feed more than 250,000 people three meals a day, every day of the year. A crowning experience of my visit to the “Peace in the Park” event was being honored with a Sikh turban to wear for the rest of the afternoon. Attached is a picture that one of them took of me.

IPSC has a long and rich tradition in South Carolina and had it’s beginnings in the 1970’s as a Christian/Jewish ecumenical initiative and was headed up by Dr. Carl Evans, University of South Carolina Professor Emeritus, he retired from the Department of Religious Studies in 2009 having been a member of the faculty since 1974. Dr. Evans is also past president of IPSC. Unity ministers Ed Kosak of Unity of Charleston and Rev. Peggy Konkel of Unity of Columbia are active in the IPSC as well. Click on Interfaith Partners of South Carolina if you would like to visit their website and to see the good work they sponsor and/or support.

Here is a link to Holli Emore's lovely celebration of the event: Peace in the Park. I love the song which she used as well, it is One by One by Michael Stillwater.
 

---