NEW YORK CITY – September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows will be among the honorees at an interfaith service marking the opening of the 57th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. Other honorees include U.N. General Assembly President Mr. Jan Kavan, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Mrs. Nane Annan.
The Annual Interfaith Service of Commitment to the Work of the United Nations, which has been held since 1997, is entitled, -A Celebration of Remembrance and Hope, Dedicated to Victims of Violence Everywhere.” The invitation-only service will be held at St. Bartholomewês Church, Park Avenue and 51st Street in Manhattan, starting at 8:30am on September 11, 2002.
Colleen Kelly, Peaceful Tomorrow’s New York Regional Coordinator, will make brief remarks at the ceremony. Kelly lost her brother, William, at the World Trade Center a year earlier, on September 11, 2001. “This service signifies exactly the way I plan to spend my day,” says Kelly. -In prayerful remembrance of my brother, and hoping for a more peaceful solution to violence around the globe.”
Both the service and the opening of the new U.N. session traditionally take place in August, but were delayed this year to coincide with the commemoration of September eleventh. The service is sponsored by the Interfaith Center of New York.
September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows (www.peacefultomorrows.org) is an advocacy organization formed by family members of September 11 victims. Its mission is to seek effective, nonviolent responses to terrorism, and to identify a commonality with all people similarly affected by violence throughout the world. Six of its members have traveled to Afghanistan to meet with Afghan civilians who lost family members in the bombing campaign that began on October 7, 2001. The group is urging the American government to create a fund that would compensate Afghan people who lost members of their family to the war.
