Prayer for All Faiths: Event Takes Off from Evangelical Roots

May 2, 2007

Author: DAVID CRUMM

Source: Detroit Free Press

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070502/NEWS05/705020399/1007/NEWS05

Thursday's National Day of Prayer, once mainly an annual evangelical display of political strength, is growing in metro Detroit into a showcase of religious diversity involving dozens of congregations.

In West Bloomfield, for example, the Chamber of Commerce will honor the township's diverse clergy association with a Celebrate West Bloomfield award. Advertisement

Rabbi Eric Yanoff, head of the Shaarey Zedek B'Nai Israel Center and codirector of the award-winning clergy association, said most members of his group wouldn't feel welcome at typical Christian-only National Day of Prayer events, "but, in our association, we've learned that there's more strength in our community when we invite people with a whole multiplicity of views to come to the table."

Msgr. Ricardo Bass, pastor of Prince of Peace Catholic Church and Yanoff's cochair of the association, said, "Like a lot of Americans, my own family is made up of people of different faiths, so I'm personally very strong in supporting religious diversity.