A Celebration for World Peace Day – Department of Inter-Religious Studies at SXC

Par Prashant Olalekar
Nov 14th, 2020

The Department of Inter-Religious Studies (DIRS) has been celebrating the World Peace Day on the 21st of September every year. We wished to continue this legacy and more so because we recognize the importance of peace, given how ironic it is to have international tensions threatening to rip the world apart amid a global pandemic.

A panel discussion was arranged to be conducted live via Zoom on Monday, 21st September, at 6:00 PM. The theme for the discussion was ‘Standing Strong for Peace’ and was deliberately chosen to encompass a variety of aspects including the need to collectively strive for Peace, highlighting the challenges faced by Peace activists across the globe irrespective of the paths that they have taken up.

We were honored to have 2 international panelists – Ms. Betsy Beckman from the U.S. and Mr. Masankho Banda from Malawi (both of whom are certified Interplayers and storytellers). The third panelist, Ms. Priyanka Bharti is a student activist working towards the upliftment of marginalized sections and women in India. The panelists offered diverse perspectives to Peace and the various ways they had adopted to achieve it. Most importantly, the panel discussion promoted a culture of listening, whereby every participant was encouraged to be respectful and tolerant towards opinions different from their own. « Let there be peace » song Credits: Jesuit Conference of South Asia, SJ Studios.