June ll, Religious convocation
Today's major event was to be the religious convocation at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. The interfaith service didn't begin until noon, leaving the morning mostly free, so of course I slept late, then subwayed to 110th Street, arriving about 11:30. The church was already nearly filled, with religions from around the world represented. Men and women in their varied religious robes were everywhere, and our Buddhist monks and nuns with their prayer banner above were easily visible.

I watched people walk past from the steps, and saw Leslie Withers from Atlanta, Langdon Bristol from Norfolk, and Beverly from New Orleans.

The cathedral had overflowed by the time the service started. With more than l0,000 attending, this was the largest interfaith service ever held in the United States. Such numbers demonstrated the growing awareness of the disarmament issue. The peace rally during SSD-I in l978 had been attended by l0,000 people; tomorrow's rally was expected to draw almost a hundred times that

_ At the end of the service, which was addressed by Protestant, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, and other faiths, people walked from the cathedral to a Central Park site. There a Tree of Life was ceremonially planted, with handfuls of soil from people's home areas, showing their faith in the future. I missed these events, having other appointments to keep related to US nuclear weapons in the Philippines, and to planning for tomorrow -- and for riding back to Durham and home.

After half a large pizza apiece, Doug and I went to the Plowshares Coffeehouse, which was full of people including Joe Felmet. We heard two Vietnamese Buddhists speak. Expelled during the war, they had not been allowed to return and were working in Paris with programs for southeast Asian refugees. One monk found his New York housing had evaporated and the cheapest hotel room he could find in Manhattan was $90 a night; a family of four in southeast Asia could live for six months on $90. The theme of his powerful talk was that each person is important. go to page 55