The interfaith peace walk in Turku. The picture is taken by Timo Jakonen.
Annual interfaith walk for peace was organized on the UN day, October 24th, 2023! The annual walk has already become a tradition, and this year we walked at the same time in Turku, Oulu, Tampere, Jyväskylä and Joensuu. A multi-faith peace concert was organized in Helsinki instead of a peace walk.
The Interfaith Peace Walk is a sign of friendship and a desire to promote peace and security in Finland and in the world in the midst of wars and polarization. Different religious communities can live peacefully side by side and create security in our society.
The theme of the walks and the concert this year was hospitality, which is at the essence of religions. This theme was shown in speeches and in some cities we enjoyed warm dinner and coffee with each other. There are currently tens of millions of refugees in the world who have had to leave their homes behind and seek refuge in a new place. In 2013, the UN refugee agency UNHCR published the document “Welcoming the Stranger: Affirmations for Faith Leaders“, which compiles a hospitable way of receiving people in need of protection, based on different religions.
The golden rule can be found in many world religions in its various forms – do unto others as you would have them do unto you. A hospitable person shows interest and warmth towards others, and does not allow differences to act as an obstacle to friendship and cooperation.
“The Golden Rule is a common denominator in many world religions: do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Religious communities want to foster hospitality towards each other and avoid confrontation. The Interfaith Peace Walk is a sign of interfaith friendship and the desire to promote peace in Finland and the world in the midst of war and polarisation”, says Katri Kuusikallio, Executive Director of the CORE Forum.
We warmly welcome all representatives of different religions, worldviews, as well as non-religious people to join us next year as well! The organizer of the event is the CORE Forum (USKOT-foorumi).
