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By Chip Harrod
Cincinnati, Ohio – In the afternoon of Sunday, August 27th, nearly 2,000 people came together to learn more about and celebrate our community’s rich religious diversity. They did so as participants in EquaSion’s 6th Annual Cincinnati Festival of Faiths, held at Xavier’s Cintas Center.
That “religious diversity” took the form of three dozen faith traditions representing 14 world religions contributing to the Festival’s amazing array of exhibitors, vendors, sponsors, and program participants. Imagine a trade show-like exhibition of religious and faith-based groups, more than 70 of them, manning table displays sharing information about their organization to interested attendees. “What are your beliefs, how do you worship, how do you celebrate your major holidays?”
The customary opening of the Festival was again an Interfaith Devotional Observance in which numerous spiritual leaders offered prayers on the Festival’s theme of “Compassion through Action: Dwelling Together in Peace and Justice.” Complementing the dynamic floor exhibition were a diverse group of ethnic entertainers performing throughout the afternoon, a children’s “Peace, Love, Play” area, three engaging sessions related to EquaSion’s on-going programs (Faith Communities Go Green, A Mighty Stream racial justice initiative, and Compassionate Conversations), and to the culinary delight of the attendees free food prepared and served, once again, by our Sikh community.
Mayor Aftab Pureval offered greetings from the City of Cincinnati and Vice Mayor Jan-Michele Lemon Kearney served as a celebrity emcee.
This year’s Festival continued beyond the initial exhibition with on-line programming the following three days culminating in a first ever interfaith Peace Walk in Ault Park on the evening of August 31st.
Presiding over Festival Week and serving as Honorary Co-Chairs were Archbishop Dennis Schnurr, Rabbi Gary Zola, Achary Kailash Sharma, and Shakila Ahmad. The Festival’s co-managers were Afreen Asif and Jan Armstrong Cobb. All of the events of the Festival were designed, organized, and presented by EquaSion’s interfaith team of volunteers.
To learn more about this year’s Festival of Faiths go to the EquaSion website at https://equasion.org/
EquaSion is a non-profit civic organization grounded in interfaith dialogue that works to promote an inclusive, equitable, compassionate, and just community for everyone.