The IN TOUCH newsletter of the Harmony Chain Initiative will be a new beginning that we hope will find many interested to join this important chain of prayer that is known by many as the HARMONY PRAYER.
The total war in Mindanao declared by President Estrada in the year 2000 was an alarming news for many of us in Mindanao. The Silsilah Dialogue Movement took that news as a challenge. We started to share among us: “What can we do for peace amidst existing and plan of war in Mindanao?”
That was the time to come up with our “war plan” using the “arm of prayer.” Since the beginning of our experience in 1984, the first group of Silsilah started to give a special attention to the spiritual aspect of dialogue and prayer for dialogue and peace. This reflection brought us to start “the Silsilah Prayer”. Every Saturday the group formed by Muslim and Christians members of Silsilah used to meet and pray. That was the time when the Silsilah prayer became part of the weekly gathering of Muslim and Christian friends of Silsilah. We used to reflect on common themes like peace, mercy, love, etc. getting quotation also from the Qur’an and the Bible. During this simple prayer and reflection, some used to reflect on the topic chosen for the week and at the end, we used to close the gathering with a spontaneous reflection and prayer / du’a with the “Al-Fâtihah” prayed by a Muslim, the “Our Father” prayed by a Christian present.
In the year 2000 when the alarming news of the total war in Mindanao reached us, we decided to share our experience of prayer for peace to all, calling our initial experience of the Silsilah Prayer, we started the HARMONY CHAIN INITIATIVE and we prepared the HARMONY PRAYER as a common prayer and a message of dialogue and peace for all. To have the approval of this initiative by our religious leaders of Mindanao, we presented the initiative and the “Harmony Prayer” to the Bishops’ Ulama Conference (BUC), an important Forum and Conference of religious leaders of Mindanao. They understood well the message of the prayer as a “UNIVERSAL PRAYER” that all of us Christians and Muslims, as well as people of other religions can pray. In fact, the word “LORD” in the prayer is considered the Lord of the universe that each one in prayer can relate to the “ Lord “ of our own faith, the God of the universe , our common Creator who make all of us part of the same “Human Fraternity”.
This approval of the BUC was the starting point of support of many others who gave attention to the initiative and to the Harmony Prayer and the prayer started to be spread on the national level, thanks also to the Office of Presidential Adviser for the Peace Process (OPAPP). Another great step that made the Harmony prayer more popular was when the famous film director Marilou Diaz Abaya, who at that time was an active member of Silsilah, decided to present the same prayer in a form of a song with a beautiful melody from Jojo Buencamino.
Encouraged by all this positive signs, we launched the slogan “FROM MINDANAO TO THE WORLD” convinced that this prayer is the prayer of all. The Harmony Prayer now is the prayer of all in many parts of the world. It is spread around the world in more than thirty countries, thanks to the members and to the Link persons and groups who commit to pray the Harmony Prayer and spreading the importance of this interfaith prayer and meditation promoting the spirit of dialogue and peace.
Those who visit the Harmony Village in Zamboanga, the Home place of the Silsilah Dialogue Movement, will see today between a Muslims prayer house and a Christian prayer house a special place called HOUSE OF THE NATIONS LINKED TO THE HARMONY CHAIN INITIATIVE and the flags of many nations.
Another encouraging step and initiative to promote the harmony prayer is also that the year 2020 coincides with the twenty year anniversary of the HARMONY CHAIN INITIATIVE and the special year dedicated to Interreligious Dialogue, Ecumenism and Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines.
All these challenges urges us to give more attention to this Harmony Chain Initiative, not any more as initiative of Silsilah, but as the initiative of many. For this reason, we will restart the IN TOUCH, the Newsletter initiated by Fr. Vincent Lelievre, a French priest who was with us years ago and after a few years died of leukemia. We hope that his passion in spreading the harmony prayer will move around the world and with the hope to share the IN TOUCH newsletter of many stories of commitment from many who, around the world, continue to pray the Harmony Prayer, use the Harmony song and to have a common commitment to promote dialogue and peace using the ARM OF PRAYER.
The IN TOUCH newsletter of the Harmony Chain Initiative will be a new beginning that we hope will find many interested to join this important chain of prayer that is known by many as the HARMONY PRAYER.