Interfaith/Interreligious? Worship/Prayer? Services/Occasions? Interfaith Prayer Gatherings

Abstract

Today there are many occasions when persons from various religious traditions gather together for some type of observance. These gatherings are referred to by various names: Interfaith “Worship”, Multireligious “Prayer,” Interreligious “Services,” and “Integrative Religious Prayer.” People come together to learn more about one another, to protest injustices, to mourn disasters, and to join together to work for the common good. In some gatherings, there are also people in attendance who claim no religious affiliation at all. In other gatherings, like a community ritual event designed by the religious leaders of the town the eve before Thanksgiving, there is often an assumption that all who attend “pray” to a “God” even if the content and forms of “prayer” and the names and understandings of “God” differ. However, while Buddhists use the term “prayer,” they do not have a “god” to whom they pray. This article addresses the models of host/guest, serial interfaith occasions (when people are participant observers at a gathering where each religious tradition maintains its own integrity and contributes something to the whole in a serial fashion), and “inter-riting” (when the event is designed so the people can pray together in a unified fashion, often blurring the boundaries that commonly separate each religion). The Shinnyo Lantern Floating Hawaii, a large Buddhist-designed interfaith ritual gathering that combines the personal and the global, and offers insights into guest/host, serial interfaith, and inter-riting models, will be used as a basis for understanding these issues to assist religious leaders in their interfaith work.

1. Introduction

The title of this article gives readers some idea of the complexities today in naming what some call “interfaith worship services” or “interreligious prayer”. We know “it” when we see it or hear about it and many of us have participated in some sort of interreligious “event” where the people gathered for more than an educational activity. Ritual practices took place. A Jew may attend the baptism of a friend’s child and in the process learn something and come to appreciate the role religion plays in his friend’s life. You may attend the wedding of a Christian who is marrying a Hindu. A Muslim colleague invites you to break the fast during a day of Ramadan at an Iftar dinner. The various religious groups in your town/city join in solidarity to protest the killing of a young black man. The nation gathers people from every religion and no religious affiliation to lament and mourn the deaths of those killed in the 9/11 attacks in the United States.

There are occasions where there is an intentional gathering of people from various religions who come together to read sacred texts, to “pray,” to be in silence together, to sing/chant songs. The purpose of these gatherings and one’s decision to attend and observe, or more actively participate varies greatly. These events, however, are not primarily about religious histories and beliefs. They embody the ways religion is lived out in spiritual practices—in the gestures and postures and movements, the sounds and sights and smells and symbols that are deeply rooted in the psyche and spiritual being of religions’ practitioners.

Joining with others from different religions, especially for ritual, prayer, or worship, is welcomed and embraced by some and viewed as a total violation of their own religious beliefs by others. Yet as oppression and even persecution of religious minorities continues at home and around the globe, and as local communities become increasingly multireligious, getting to know our religiously diverse neighbors and finding ways to foster peace can be a great contribution to human flourishing and the common good.

This article highlights the Lantern Floating Hawaii event as an example of a religious community that uses important elements and symbols from their tradition to create an interreligious occasion for the purpose of fostering healing and peace among those who attend. Organized by a Buddhist denomination that began in Japan in the 1930s, the event intentionally takes place near Pearl Harbor, the site that Japan bombed in 1941.

There are various occasions today that call upon religious leaders and laypersons to design and/or participate in collaborative multireligious events. The purpose(s), content, and leadership of these occasions all vary, but there are some models that can help those who participate in the design of these events. What these events are called varies greatly.

In the field of Christian liturgical studies, there is no common agreed upon term that refers to the variety of interfaith/interreligious worship/prayer/ritual services/occasions described above. In some ways it is tied to the area of study known as “multicultural worship” because the gathering of those from other religious traditions is, by definition, also multicultural. However, there are additional layers of complexity that accompany the worship/prayer/ritual gatherings where two or more religious traditions jointly design and facilitate an occasion that is for their respective communities but also for the confluence of these communities combined.

Different disciplines, different religions, and different regions within the English-speaking world define terms associated with these occasions in varied ways, not to mention the plethora of terms possible in other languages. I am a North American, Caucasian woman who is a Christian minister and native English speaker. This article is somewhat slanted toward an English-speaking Christian audience because these interfaith/multireligious ritual gatherings are often more problematic for Christians than for Hindus, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, or Baha’is. Christianity is considered an “exclusive” religion which, for some, poses issues for interfaith engagement.

It is clear that the English terms we choose can be interpreted in a variety of positive (welcoming, inclusive) and negative (boundary erecting, exclusive) ways. Therefore, clarity of what is meant by the words used in this article is essential. Coming to an understanding of these terms is an important part of engagement with persons from other religions.

1.1. Interfaith? Interreligious? Multireligious?

In reality, “interfaith” and “interreligious” are often used interchangeably. However, scholars and theologians have argued for highlighting the difference between these terms. The World Council of Churches (WCC)

distinguishes between ‘interfaith’ and ‘interreligious.’ For the WCC, the term ‘interfaith’ is not limited to established religions. The term ‘interfaith’ is also ‘considered to encompass ideologies and systems of belief which transcend specific religious identification, including, for example, humanists and secularists. It is also a term regularly used in political and social circles, to speak about social cohesion, the importance of members of different faiths and religions working together for the common good, and the elusive search for peace between religions’.

(Tveit 2016)

In 1965, as a result of Vatican II, the Roman Catholic Church published “Nostra Aetate” (Our Age) which used the term “interreligious” to refer to its engagement with those from other religions and faith traditions (Nostra Aetate 1965). Following “Nostra Aetate,” the WCC “has increasingly opted to use the word interreligious rather than interfaith” because the work they do is primarily dialogue with those who represent a specific religious tradition (Tveit 2016).

Whether the term is all one word or two words or a hyphenated word can also signal differences in meaning. Sometimes, “interfaith” is used to emphasize the similarities between religions while “inter-faith” or “inter faith” is used to highlight the need to keep differences as well as similarities part of the encounter (Tveit 2016).

In “(Inter)Religious Studies: Making a Home in the Secular Academy,” Kate McCarthy argues that “interfaith” activities are done with the goal of creating a space where people who belong to different faith traditions work together for the purpose of greater understanding and fostering peace. She views the field of “interreligious studies” as an academic discipline that is committed to critical study but is religiously neutral (McCarthy 2018).

“Multireligious” and “multifaith” are also terms that are used in both the academy and the church though not as often as interreligious and interfaith. As you can see, the choice of the term used means different things to different populations of people. Since ritual gatherings are often designed to bring adherents of different religions together for deeper understanding and fostering peace, and since civic ritual gatherings and those designed to protest, lament, or grieve tragedies in our communities, nations, and world also include those who are humanists, secularists, agnostics, spiritual but not religious, and atheists, for the purpose of this article, I will use the term “interfaith,” though “multifaith” would similarly reflect the intent of these gatherings. While I have not chosen to include the hyphenated term “inter-faith” since it less frequently appears in discussions on this topic, attention to differences as well as similarities should nonetheless be a part of these interfaith gatherings. In helping to organize interfaith gatherings, it is important to discern what term will be used to best convey the purpose of the event and how the meaning of terms used will be conveyed to those who will attend.

1.2. Worship? Ritual? Prayer?

In addition to the question of the adjective (interfaith, interreligious, etc.) that identifies the multifaith composition of these gatherings, what it is that we are doing is also riven with controversy. “Worship” as a collective ritual event is viewed by many as more of a Christian term. This is not to say that those who are not Christian do not worship. “Worship,” can be found in many of the world’s religions but it is defined and expressed in different ways. Christians use it in reference to worshiping a triune God (Father/God, Son/Jesus, Holy Spirit). If an interfaith event has worship in the title, for non-Christians, the term can imply that the ritual event will have an underlying assumption of a divine being who is worshipped. For some outside Christianity, using the term interfaith worship might also imply that the ritual occasion was primarily designed/organized by Christians, which conveys an assumption about the power dynamics present in the planning and outcome of the interfaith event.

The word “ritual” is likewise controversial. For some, it is a comfortable term that refers to spiritual practices (personal and collective) that are life-giving and form the rhythms of our lives—daily, weekly, and yearly. It might be daily prayers and devotions, the weekly times we gather as communities of faith (though not all religions gather weekly), the yearly feasts, festivals, seasons, and holy days that are celebrated. It might be the rituals that we call rites of passage that take place throughout one’s lifetime. “Ritual studies” is a term used in anthropology denoting cultural rituals that may or may not have religious foundations, so the term also has secular meanings as well. For some people, the term “ritual” is defined as repetitious—saying the same words in the same order week after week (which has positive connotations for some and negative ones for others). However, the very nature of ritual can also be problematic for events specifically created for a diverse group of people at a particular time and place because ritual “is a set pattern of behavior which people receive rather than create. More than any other structured cultural behavior, rituality is traditional and resists change” (Moyaert 2015).

The term “prayer” is used in a wide variety of religious contexts. The weekly gathering of Jews and Muslims would more likely be called “prayer”, rather than “worship”. Prayer is a corporate occasion as well as a personal, individual practice. “Prayer” also denotes physical movements and postures for many of the world’s religions. “Prayer vigil” may be the term used when persons come together to protest an injustice committed against an individual or group of people, to lament or grieve unnecessary death. Despite this, in the Western world, “prayer” often implies an entity that we are praying to who is usually greater than/beyond ourselves, a deity. Yet not all religions are theist.

“Prayer” is a practice within Buddhism and Jainism but it is not addressed to a divine being since there is no external creator “god” within these religious traditions. Enlightened beings are not considered divine. Prayer is also not about petition or supplication—asking God or enlightened ones for something for ourselves or for others. Instead prayer is about the transformation of our inward self and outward acts that bring us closer to enlightenment as we learn from and model our lives on those who have already attained enlightenment. Meditation is a form of prayer, a process of mental purification, of cleansing the mind from attachments and desires to focus on compassion and loving-kindness. While in the Western world there is often this underlying assumption of theism in connection with the word “prayer,” there is also a wide diversity of purposes for these prayers. “There is a difference between praying to a God who sees and hears, recognizes and stands over against you, and intentionally ‘oneing’ yourself with an infinite being with which you are already identified at your deepest level and into which you wish to be absorbed” (Ryan 2008). Therefore, any generic use of the word “prayer” (as in interfaith prayer) for these ritual occasions can be problematic, especially if the planners believe that “we all pray to the same God” as a way to highlight our similarities and create unity. It excludes those from non-theist religious traditions. Still, interreligious and interfaith scholar, Sheryl Kujawa-Holbrook, argues for the use of the term “prayer” rather than “worship” because “’prayer’ translates more readily across traditions than the term ‘worship’ (Kujawa-Holbrook 2019)”.

While the term “prayer” is certainly problematic, it is a term more widely used among the world’s religions. The commonality of its usage and the multiplicity of its meanings and practices across traditions may make it more acceptable to people from drastically different religions (i.e., theist, monotheist, polytheist, pantheist, non-theist). Many religions have different postures for prayer (i.e., sitting, kneeling, standing, dancing, spinning/twirling, lying prostrate), movements that accompany prayer (i.e., the movements in the Salat prayers of Islam, crossing oneself in some forms of Christianity, bowing one’s head, rocking movements in some forms of Judaism as well as in the Tong Sung Kido prayers of Korean Protestant Christians, twirling/spinning in the Sufi whirling dervishes or in some Traditional African religions), objects that focus the mind when praying (i.e., statues of the Hindu gods and goddesses, the prayer beads and prayer wheels in Buddhism, the rosary beads in Catholicism, the materials used for the Kolam prayer designs in Hinduism, the cross found in most Christian churches), ways prayers are expressed (i.e., singing, chanted, spoken, offered in silence), and purposes of prayer (i.e., adoration, thanksgiving, petition, blessing, to seek help/guidance, to transform the self, to meditate on those who are the human holy ones past and present, to offer honor to the divine or enlightened ones, to repent or turn toward the path of holiness or enlightenment). For the purpose of this article, I will use the term “prayer” because of its common usage and multivalent nature. People can bring to and take from the interfaith prayer event something that connects to their understanding(s) of “prayer” rooted in their tradition IF the gathering is designed in a way that is open to this diversity of prayer practices, postures, purposes, movements, expressions, and meanings in order for the people gathered to be able to participate.

Whatever term is chosen (“worship,” or “ritual,” or “prayer,” or some other term to convey the purpose of an interfaith event), it is important to consider how the term chosen is reflective of those religious traditions represented in the organizers, invited participants/guests, and the intent of the gathering/event. The term may be different from one occasion to another as the planners, participants, and purposes change.

1.3. Service? Event? Celebration? Vigil? Ceremony? Occasion? Gathering?

Some who organize these interfaith observances also use an additional term to denote what will take place. The word “service” has many different uses in the English language and while it is used by most Protestant Christians (i.e., “worship service,” or even simply “the service”), it is confusing to non-native-English-speaking Christians as well as those from other religious traditions. These are often events, celebrations, sometimes vigils (as in “keeping watch”—to keep in the forefront so injustices do not happen again). “Ceremony” implies something more formal which may be very appropriate. The term “occasion” implies that the event is not repeated on a regular basis but happens occasionally. The term “gathering” denotes that people are coming from diverse places, even perspectives, to join together as a community. I believe that gathering is at the heart of interfaith prayer.

2. Interfaith Prayer Gatherings

2.1. Introduction: Interreligious Comfort Zones

There are a variety of expressions of interfaith prayer gatherings. Some preserve the boundaries of religious beliefs, sacred texts, and practices while others intentionally blur those boundaries. Some adherents to various religions are deeply attracted to interfaith prayer gatherings and others are absolutely appalled by the fact that they exist. Where one places oneself on the interfaith prayer comfort zone spectrum often depends on one’s beliefs about other religions. While Christianity and Islam are considered to be more exclusive in nature (their religion is the only way) compared to the dharmic traditions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism) which are more inclusive of other religions, there exists within most of the world’s religions those who are more open and those who are more orthodox in their beliefs. Today, there are also persons who have multiple religious belongings. Additionally, among the grassroots population in parts of Asia, some people participate in religious rituals of different religious traditions depending on whether the ritual brings about the desired result, not based on the religion’s belief system (Farwell 2015), so one’s choice to participate includes many factors.

Paul Knitter, in his book Introducing Theologies of Religions poses four models of ways people view religions other than their own: “replacement,” “fulfillment,” “mutuality,” and “acceptance” (Kittner 2002). Though written from a Christian (Roman Catholic) perspective, these models are helpful for understanding people’s comfort zones in participating in interfaith prayer gatherings. For those adherents of a more exclusive religious tradition, the “replacement” model affirms that their religion is the only true religion, which will eventually supplant the “lesser” religions of the world. The “fulfillment” model recognizes the possibility of grace, even truth, in other religions though not on par with one’s own religion. These first two models “so stress the particularity of one religion that the validity of all the others is jeopardized” (Kittner 2002, p. 173). The “mutuality” model values the worth and truth that lies within all religious traditions and does not try to rank them as more or less inferior to one’s own. This model can so “stress the universal validity of all in a way that fogs over the real particular differences” (ibid.). The “acceptance” model accepts “the real diversity of all faiths. The religious traditions of the world are really different, and we have to accept those differences …” (ibid.).

What one believes along this spectrum impacts one’s willingness to participate in interfaith prayer. While more attention needs to be given to familial interfaith prayer occasions given the increase in interfaith marriages, for the purpose of this article, I will focus on the models for corporate/communal events (which are often adapted for familial occasions). There are three basic models of corporate interfaith prayer gatherings that are most common today: (1) guest/host; (2) serial interfaith occasions, multireligious/multi-religious prayer; and (3) inter-riting, united interreligious prayer, interreligious prayer, integrative religious prayer. While these will be discussed in their “pure” form, there is always the possibility that more than one form may be present in any gathering. The Lantern Floating Hawaii event is used as an example because it contains all three of these models.

2.2. Models of Interreligious Prayer

Guest/Host

In the guest/host model, a person from one religious tradition is the guest at a gathering that is organized and led by persons from a different religious tradition. I attended the daily puja (prayer) at a Hindu monastery on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. I could choose to be an observer or I could participate to whatever degree I felt comfortable. While the host welcomed non-Hindus and the website gave some background on what was appropriate to wear, etc., in order for me to participate in the puja (since I did not understand the language), I needed to be attentive to what others were doing (postures, emotions, symbolic actions) and model what I observed. I chose to participate to the degree I could because simply observing the sounds and sights alone did not convey for me a fuller sense of the spirituality. Participating in the movements and symbolic actions helped the experience to be embodied. While things were not explained in English (verbally or in written form), there was still a warmth of hospitality in that I felt welcomed and accepted regardless of anything I did “wrong” during the times I was trying to participate. In some guest/host situations, there are more accommodations for the guests (information, guidance, etc.) which may allow for fuller participation but participation is not necessarily expected.

In other gatherings, being an observer may be all that is intended by the host. It is often hospitable to not require anything of the guest. The host is simply appreciative of their presence. In “Receiving the Stranger: A Muslim Theology,” Tim Winter states that “hospitality is only authentic if it respects rather than compromises the rights of the guest” (Winter 2015). However, there are also “rights” of the host. Ruth Langer, in “Parameters of Hospitality for Interreligious Participation: A Jewish Perspective,” reminds us that “guests who do not respect the ‘rules of the house’ violate the proffered hospitality.” It is helpful if the “rules of the house” and the expectations of both guests and hosts are clarified in advance.

2.3. Serial Interfaith Occasions, Multireligious/Multi-Religious Prayer

This second model is often referred to as serial interfaith occasions (Braybrooke 1997), multireligious prayer (Ryan 2008), or multi-religious prayer (Moyaert 2015; Braybrooke 1997). Since “multireligious prayer” today is a more generic term that can be used to refer to any one of these models, I will use “serial” to refer to this model.

In 1986, Pope John Paul II gathered with representatives from different religions in Assisi, Italy, for A Day of Prayer for Peace. He said “We come together to pray rather than come to pray together” (Ryan 2008). In this gathering, a diversity of Christian denominations and eleven other world religions/traditions came together for fasting and prayer throughout the day with each praying/meditating in their own way. On this occasion and subsequent commemorations of this day, there was no “joint” or interfaith time of prayer. Nonetheless, in many ways this concept of “coming together to pray” is foundational for serial prayer. In serial interfaith prayer, people gather to offer texts, songs/chants, prayers, symbolic artifacts, and actions from their own religion in the presence of persons from other religions.

These “offerings” are done in a serial fashion; the rites of one tradition cross paths with the rites of another religious tradition. It honors the differences among the religions while at the same time showing respect, even appreciation for the offerings of those different from one’s own. It is a given that what is said from those in leadership will not ring true for everyone present but it also recognizes that what is said are truth claims for some of those who have gathered. Sometimes serial gatherings are organized around a topic so that sacred texts, prayers, songs/chants, symbolic artifacts, and actions are chosen to reflect a common theme. A sacred text will be read by an adherent of one religion, a song will be chanted by another, a prayer will be offered by another, etc. Each religion maintains their own integrity within the presence of others—coming together to pray, not praying together. If an imam is offering the Shahadah (“I testify that there is no god but God and I testify that Muhammad [peace be upon Him] is His servant and Messenger.”), Muslims attending the gathering may recite the Shahadah as well so there is the possibility of active participation by some, but it is participation in what is familiar from one’s own religion while being an observer of those offerings from other religious traditions.

2.4. Inter-Riting, United Interreligious Prayer, Interreligious Prayer, Integrative Religious Prayer

Inter-riting (Moyaert 2015), united interreligious prayer (Braybrooke 1997), interreligious prayer (Ryan 2008; Moyaert 2015), and integrative religious prayer (Ryan 2008) are terms that are used to refer to interfaith gatherings intentionally designed for people to come to pray together rather than coming together to pray. There are times when people from various religions (and those with no religious affiliation) gather in order to celebrate diversity or to “create a ‘we’ in the face of shared challenges (Moyaert 2015).” The occasion may be an interfaith walk for peace that ends with an interfaith prayer gathering or there might be a prayer vigil protesting an injustice in the community or in the world. The focus is on our common humanity, the unity of community while at the same time recognizing, respecting, and valuing cultural and religious differences. In these gatherings, there is intentionally no clear host or guest. Great care is taken to include representatives from as many religious traditions as possible to help plan and organize the interfaith prayer event. One major goal is participation by all who attend. Michael Jagessar believes that for this to happen, however, “in order to pray each other’s prayers, we must assume that there is indeed some sense of disruption, or to use a better word, an expansion of our commitments (Jagessar 2016)”.

In this model, attempts are made to be as inclusive as possible, which often means being mindful of language, gestures, symbols, etc., that erect barriers to participation. Jewish scholar, Lawrence A. Hoffman, in his article “Worship in Common,” refers to this as a service of “Mutual Affirmation” or one of the “Highest Common Denominator” (Hoffman 1990) because critics of this model often refer to it in negative terms as interfaith prayer of the least common denominator (Braybrooke 1997). Or it is said to be syncretistic and reduces the substance of religious traditions to whatever it is that we can claim is common among us. However, one of the key purposes of this model of interfaith prayer gatherings is to gather as one community those long divided, to stand in solidarity with the “other,” to celebrate diversity within the human community, and to seek the common good for humanity, its creatures, and our home, Earth.

The designers and leaders of these services represent not only their respective religious tradition but they are present to help guide all who have gathered in a time of unity and community and, hopefully, a transformative experience. It may be a college campus’ baccalaureate before graduation or a nation’s “prayer” during an inauguration. Everyone is invited to join/participate regardless of their religious affiliation. These gatherings are often topically oriented, specific to the occasion, and highly contextual.

One of the great dangers of the inter-riting model of interfaith prayer is misappropriation—borrowing the sacred texts, practices, and symbols of a religious tradition and using them in inauthentic ways. The end result can appear to be disrespectful of particular beliefs and abuse of spiritual practices. Given the fluid boundaries, the risk of misappropriation, and the goal of inclusion of theists, non-theists, and atheists, this is perhaps the most difficult type of an interfaith prayer gathering to plan.

Each of these models have value in their “pure” form but ritual/prayer/worship within various religious traditions are not always in their “pure” form, if a “pure” form can even be identified. Borrowings and blendings take place as religions interact with culture and other religions in different times and places.

What follows is an example of a unique interfaith prayer gathering. It is unique because it contains elements from all three of the models discussed, practitioners from many different religions and those with no religious affiliation at all attend, and the number of participants is extremely large. It is a yearly event (except during the COVID-19 pandemic) known as Lantern Floating Hawaii (Figure 1).

On the island of Oahu, Lantern Floating Hawaii is an unique, very large (40,000+ participants) interfaith prayer gathering with over 40,000 participants. Note, however, that “prayer” or “worship” or even “interfaith” is not in the title. Though clearly an interfaith prayer gathering, the title depicts the participatory symbolic action that is the culmination of the event. Lantern Floating Hawaii is organized by the Shinnyo-En Buddhist community. Shinnyo-En roughly translates as “a garden open to all, where everyone can discover and bring out their true nature”. While Shinnyo Buddhism was not founded in Japan until the 1930s by Shinjo Ito, it is rooted in the 1100-year-old Shingon Buddhism, one of the main forms of esoteric Buddhism in Japan. Shinnyo Buddhism’s current leader is Her Holiness, Shinso Ito (Shinnyo-en 2021). Lantern Floating Hawaii has roots in the Japanese Buddhist Festival of the Dead (Obon) in late summer which is a very popular, solemn occasion when the dead, especially the spirits of those who died within the year, return home for a visit.2 The Shinnyo Buddhists of Honolulu have adapted the day, purpose, and meanings associated with it to reflect the interreligious prayer gathering and American (U.S.) context in which it takes place, Hawaii, where east meets west on the sacred lands of the native Hawaiians.3

Lantern Floating Hawaii occurs at dusk on the Memorial Day holiday (the last Monday in May) about 10 miles from Pearl Harbor. The date, time, and place are intentional as remnants of war are mitigated by religious and cultural offerings of healing and peace. “The releasing of the lanterns is a symbolic, collective vow to work toward a peaceful, harmonious future, where each person commits to strive for their best through expressing their ‘shinnyo’, a term used to describe ‘our best selves’” (Shinnyo 2021). The invitation in 2019 was to “Come to honor, love and embrace those who have passed and to share the innate lovingkindness that lives in each of us, that light that we call ‘shinnyo’ (Lantern Floating Hawaii 2019)”.

The interfaith prayer gathering is led in multiple languages (primarily Japanese, Hawaiian, and English) and is about 45 min long. The symbolic action part of the event (floating the lanterns), however, continues well into the evening as 7000 lanterns are floated in the Ala Moana Bay by persons from every religious tradition and those with no religious affiliation at all. Family groups or groups of friends receive a lantern that includes a candle and a rice paper “memory wall” around the candle. People write prayers and poems, names of loved ones who have died, draw pictures, or tape photos on the rice paper. Some add flowers to the base of the lantern. After the ceremony, all the lanterns are retrieved from the bay, the rice paper “memory walls” are collected and, over time, all are respectfully handled and blessed/prayed over/meditated upon by leaders of the Shinnyo-en Temple before they are burned.

The planning process, the leadership in the interfaith ceremony itself, and the diversity of the 40,000+ participant observers represent aspects of each of the interreligious prayer models identified above. In general, the first part of the 45-min ceremony resembles the serial interfaith occasions, multireligious/multi-religious prayer model. The second part of the ceremony mostly includes aspects from the guest/host model. The third part, the floating of the lanterns that is the culmination of the ceremony, reflects the values and purposes of the inter-riting, interreligious prayer, joint interreligious prayer, integrative religious prayer model.

The interfaith prayer gathering is primarily planned and led by adherents of Shinnyo Buddhism though the event could not take place without hundreds of volunteers that are not affiliated with the Shinnyo-en temple. Specific invitations were sent to Shinnyo-en communities in other parts of the world as well as to persons from other religious traditions. I was an invited Christian guest in 2016 as part of the interfaith outreach of the Los Angeles Shinnyo-en temple.4 Amazing hospitality was extended to us as they provided us with lanterns, instructions, art supplies for the “memory wall,” food, and seats near the stage for the ceremony which took place outside on the edge of the Ala Moana bay. While seats were only available in front of the stage for a few hundred invited guests, an enormous screen on the stage and loud speakers positioned around the bay area made the activities on the stage visible to many people and heard by most gathered. Periodically throughout the interfaith prayer gathering, the screen would show drone shots of the thousands of participants gathered on the shoreline.

2.5. Serial Interfaith Occasions, Multireligious/Multi-Religious Prayer—Shinnyo-en Lantern Floating Ceremony

The opening of the 2019 interfaith prayer gathering, Lantern Floating Hawaii, began with the blowing of the conch shell, a native Hawaiian ritual. In a more “serial” fashion, there were “offerings” by various community participants who were not Shinnyo Buddhists. Native Hawaiians offered song/chants and dance. Japanese Taiko drummers and a flutist contributed their beat and music. Members of the Honolulu community shared stories of justice and compassion work. Local military (from the navy base at Pearl Harbor), civic, and other religious representatives were physically present on the stage as words were offered that contributed to the overall theme of unity amidst diversity and sharing one’s light, one’s best self for the transformation of others.

There were people in the large throng that understood the Hawaiian language, the meaning of various gestures during the Hawaiian dances, the origins and purpose of the blowing of the conch shell. Others present would have understood the deeper meanings of the rhythms of the Taiko drums and the words offered in Japanese. Later in the event, when there were specifically Shinnyo Buddhist elements, those from other Buddhist denominations would have related to the ringing of the bell, the water and rice offerings that are similarly present in non-Shinnyo Buddhist practices. They might have connected the flower petals strewn on the floor with the lotus flowers that bloomed with each of seven steps taken by the Buddha after his birth. They would have resonated with some of the items, symbols, gestures, and actions involved in the blessings bestowed upon the gathering by Her Holiness, Shinso Ito. People were participants when aspects of their religious tradition were offered and observers during the other contributions.

While a small lamplight was placed on a table on the stage early in the ceremony, in an act of solidarity embodying unity-in-diversity (which would be uncommon in a strict serial model), the community representatives on the stage (religious, military, civic) gathered in a semi-circle to collectively light a very large cauldron—the “light of harmony” (Lantern Floating Hawaii 2019). The small lamplight and large flame introduced the theme of light that was carried out later as the thousands of lanterns danced across the water spreading light in the darkness.

2.6. Guest/Host—Shinnyo-en Lantern Floating Ceremony

Though there were often brief introductions in English that cued us in on what was happening, much of the interfaith prayer gathering, especially in the second part, included ritual practices of Shinnyo-en that were not explained or translated into English which made non-Shinnyo Buddhists primarily observers/guests until the symbolic action at the end when the lanterns were launched. The presiders and other participants on the stage wore different colored robes but what the colors signified was unclear5. While holding prayer beads in their hands, women strew flower petals on the floor of the stage.6 There were water offerings using a nautilus shell and rice offerings.7 Wreaths were ceremoniously placed on two very large lanterns.8 Her Holiness offered a “ritual blessing” for all gathered that involved two small vessels (one with water), dipping her finger in one of the bowls and rubbing the side of her prayer beads multiple times, using a long, thin brass stick to strike one of the bowls three times. The stick was then dipped in the bowl of water and “waved” repeatedly toward various sections where people were gathered—including those farther away on the shoreline. She then blessed the larger lanterns. The bowls were covered. She rubbed her palms together, placed her hands, palms together, in front of her forehead, and bowed. After Her Holiness offered a prayer (that was translated on the screen, though not verbally for those who could not see the screen)9 (Lantern Floating Hawaii 2019), she sang a song/chant that contained more confessional language about Buddhist beliefs but because it was chanted in a language unfamiliar to most, those of us who did not understand ancient or modern Japanese did not know what the lyrics were and therefore were not uncomfortable (even as an observer/guest) with the beliefs that were being proclaimed.10

At the end, just before the invitation was extended to launch their lanterns, Her Holiness held the tip of the handle of a bell to her forehead, then moved it down and out to ring it. She repeated this several times and then she rang the bell at a faster pace without returning the handle to her forehead. When she ceases the ringing, she returns the tip of the handle to her forehead and pauses in a slight bow before putting the bell down.11 She then sat in a posture of “prayer”/meditation (palms pressed together near her face) as the large lanterns (two with wreaths on them) were removed from the stage and placed in longboats and/or outrigger canoes. She maintained that position as the thousands gathered launched their lanterns as well.

All of these ritual acts were accompanied by movements, gestures, and postures that clearly added additional meaning to those adherents of Shinnyo Buddhism and, most likely, for other Buddhists as well. However, for those of other religious traditions, there was minimal, if any, information about the meaning of these symbols or actions. For the large percentage of the 40,000+ gathered, we were observers of these ritual practices of another religious tradition, many of which were done in silence or with chanting/singing in the background in languages mostly unfamiliar to those present.12 During these moments, most of us were guests of our Shinnyo Buddhist hosts, observers of the beauty and serenity of the sights and sounds of the ritual acts.

2.7. Inter-Riting, Interreligious Prayer, Joint Interreligious Prayer, Integrative Religious Prayer—Shinnyo-en Lantern Floating Ceremony

“We are strengthened as a community as we reach out to support others and build understanding of our common values and experiences (Lantern Floating Hawaii 2019).” This statement from the 2019 Lantern Floating ceremony conveys one of the core purposes of the event—to create “harmony amid diversity”. The extremely diverse community on Oahu along with the worldwide invited guests come together for this event that requires hundreds of volunteers (only some from the Shinnyo-en Temple) to provide the foundation for, and to undergird the purpose of, this interfaith prayer gathering. There are people on the shoreline helping those gathered to launch their lanterns. Others push the lanterns further out into the bay so more could be launched. Some are doing crowd control, helping with the sound or video, or serving as ushers for the invited guests. There are people in canoes that create a boundary between the bay and the ocean to make sure the lanterns stay in the bay. Later in the evening, they collect all 7000 lanterns and return them to shore. The larger community who represent a diversity of religions and no religion is required for this interfaith prayer gathering to take place so that “common values and experiences” can be fostered.

Groups of family and friends design their lantern in ways that are most meaningful for each. Words written on the rice paper “wall,” the light represented by the candle, the lantern base that stays afloat despite rough seas, the water itself that can be lifegiving and healing but also destructive, are all symbols that have different associations and meanings within different religions and within different communities and families. Nonetheless, the experience of death is something we all have in common. Rather than teachings on what Shinnyo Buddhism does and does not believe about death, “samsara,” the transmigration of a soul, whether there are souls, reincarnation, or rebirth, etc., the planners of this gathering intentionally chose a symbolic action that had deep roots in their broader Buddhist tradition but was also open to multivalent interpretations. However, many of those gathered did connect the loss of loved ones with this symbolic act of launching the lantern into the bay: for some it was a “letting go” of those who had departed, for others a “re-connection/reception” of those long dead, for others it was a “sending forth” of the deceased into the next journey “beyond.” For non-religious persons, it may have been a step in the process of grief, maybe even a sense of closure. For those not grieving, the beauty and serenity of the environment and the lantern evoked prayers/hopes for peace. For many, it was a combination of all of these things. The interpretations of the meanings of this symbolic act were as numerous as the thousands gathered. The year I participated, in the midst of thousands, there was a tremendous sense of shared community as we joined together in this meaningful act collectively. While the mood was more solemn with many tears shed, there was also awe and wonder on the multitude of faces as the lanterns filled the bay with light and the memories of loved ones. The transformation of individuals and the larger community gathered was palpable.

One could argue that the inclusion of all three models allows for the participation of more people from diverse religious traditions and no religious tradition at all. At some point in the event, people could participate in what they considered to be their comfort zone. The opposite is also true. Some elements were in languages that were unfamiliar and the practices and symbols were primarily for the “insiders” who were formed in Buddhism, especially Shinnyo Buddhism. As religious leaders and laypersons choose to collaborate in the design and/or participation in interfaith prayer gatherings, it will be important to discern which model is most appropriate or whether the blending of more than one model will best accomplish the purpose of the event.

3. Conclusions

While interfaith prayer gatherings are still problematic for more orthodox adherents of most religious traditions, it is clear that interfaith awareness and education in the civic sphere, interfaith marriages and friendships in the personal realm, and formal interfaith dialogue between religious institutions are increasing the desire for interfaith prayer gatherings. The context in which these gatherings take place, the religious backgrounds (and/or no religious affiliation) of the participants, and the purposes of these gatherings call for a unique structure, content, and model(s) to give form and shape to the occasion. These events enable us to focus on something beyond ourselves (though not necessarily on a divine entity). They encourage us to cross boundaries, develop community, even friendships, with those often deemed “the other.” We join in solidarity in protest, collective grieving, and joint efforts that are for the common good of all of the world’s peoples and creatures, even the earth itself. These interfaith prayer gatherings build bridges that help us navigate difficult terrain so that those long separated may be able to come together to pray and come to pray together.