Each year in the first week of February, the United Nations calls on individuals and organisations around the world to hold events that encourage interfaith dialogue and promote the harmony that is the foundation of lasting peace. On Saturday 3 February 2024, UPF New Zealand answered that call at the Peace Embassy, 24 St Stephens Avenue, Parnell — gathering more than 20 Ambassadors for Peace, friends, and members of the faith community for the annual World Interfaith Harmony Week celebration.
The notice for the event had been short. Yet more than 20 people came — a testament to the relationships UPF New Zealand has built across Auckland’s diverse faith communities over many years of patient, persistent work.
The Spirit of the Week
World Interfaith Harmony Week, observed annually since its establishment by the United Nations General Assembly in 2010, is grounded in a simple but profound conviction: that the world’s religions, despite their differences in doctrine, practice, and culture, share a common commitment to goodness, compassion, and human dignity. In Aotearoa — a nation shaped by te Tiriti o Waitangi, by Pacific migration, and by waves of immigration from Asia, the Middle East, and beyond — this week is a natural fit for the values that UPF New Zealand seeks to embody year-round.
The 2024 gathering brought together representatives from four major faith traditions, each sharing their community’s perspective on the importance of interfaith dialogue and mutual respect:
- Christianity — Rev. and Mrs. Suamalie Naisali Iosefa Naisali
- Islam — Mohammad Khan, Imraan Hussein, and Anne Pala Degia-Pala
- Sikhism — Harjit Singh, Karmjit Singh, and Jappan Kaur
- Hinduism — Harnam Singh Golian (a former Senator of the Fiji Parliament) and Mr. Tej Ram
Members of the UPF Peace Federations also attended, bringing the interfaith conversation into dialogue with UPF’s broader vision of one family under God.
Sharing the Importance of Interfaith Activity
The heart of the gathering was an open conversation about why interfaith activity matters — and why it matters now. Each representative shared the perspective of their own tradition: how Islam understands the divine call to justice and compassion; how Sikhism’s teaching of ik onkar (one God, one humanity) shapes its approach to interfaith relationships; how Hinduism’s recognition of multiple paths to the divine creates a natural openness to dialogue; and how Christianity’s call to love one’s neighbour — including the neighbour of a different faith — grounds interfaith work in theological conviction, not merely civic politeness.
These were not merely academic presentations. They were expressions of lived faith — of communities that have found, in their own scriptures and traditions, a mandate for the kind of meeting that was happening in that room.
The gathering also drew on the vision of Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon and Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, co-founders of UPF, who dedicated their lives to the conviction that true peace cannot be achieved without overcoming the barriers between religions. For UPF, interfaith work is not peripheral — it is central to the entire project of building a world of lasting peace.
One Family Under God
As the gathering drew to a close, there was a shared sense of what UPF New Zealand calls “reconfirmation” — a renewal of the vision that draws people from different backgrounds to the same room and the same purpose. As participants reflected afterwards, this annual gathering always enables the community to reconfirm the vision of one family under God.
It is a vision that does not erase difference. The faith traditions represented in that room at the Peace Embassy are genuinely distinct — in their theologies, their practices, their histories, and their communities. Interfaith harmony is not achieved by pretending otherwise. It is achieved by discovering what lies beneath those differences: a shared humanity, a common longing for goodness, and a recognition that the God who made us all made us for one another.
UPF New Zealand is grateful to every faith leader and Ambassador for Peace who gave their time and presence to make the 2024 World Interfaith Harmony Week celebration what it was. The Peace Embassy, as always, was glad to be the house in which this particular family gathered.
Leave a Reply