New Year Dawns with Prayer for Peace

January 1, 2007

Author: KAREN LONG

Source: The Northwest Herald

http://www.nwherald.com/articles/2007/01/01/news/local/doc4598cededb79b746795405.txt

CRYSTAL LAKE -- A recent, three-week trip to Turkey gave Karen Kelly of Oakwood Hills an appreciation for Islam.

“I was dramatically moved by the core sense of God within and God among all the people,” she said. “It made me realize also what a misconception [of Islam] we have in the United States.”

Kelly, 54, read a Muslim prayer for peace Sunday at a local World Healing Meditation event, which united people of different religions for the cause of peace.

The local event of about 30 people at Crystal Lake’s Country Inn & Suites joined prayers around the world at noon Greenwich Mean Time, or 6 a.m. in the Central time zone.

“Let us come together for just a moment in the consciousness of peace and harmony,” said The Rev. Anne Muelleman of the McHenry County Church of Religious Science, which organized the local event.