Members of Birmingham Progressive Synagogue helped to organise the city’s Peace Together interfaith vigil.

Held at St Anne’s Catholic Church, the event was attended by more than 100 people – including Jews, Muslims, Christians, Bahai and people of other faiths and none. Together, they shared prayers for peace from different religions, placed candles around the letters PEACE and were given paper doves made by local children.

Imam Ahmad Khalid recited from the Qur’an, and Cory Rich, a student who attends Birmingham Progressive Synagogue, read a poem which they had written – inspired by the congregation’s Shabbat Iftar in March .

Cory’s poem was described by participants as “moving, “inspiring” and “the highlight of the programme”. It can be read below.

—

Last week at my synagogue
the doors were open
I ran in and out of the kitchen and up and down the stairs
I washed apples
I folded prayer sheets
I heard someone say
‘you’ve brought too much fruit’
and ‘no no, we did that on purpose’
and ‘is there anything I can help with?’
and ‘we don’t have as much time as I thought!’
and ‘who brought 100 loaves of challah?’
and ‘are we sure that’s enough?’
and ‘they barely fit in the kitchen!’
and ‘people are arriving!’
and a woman in a hijab
covered in purple flowers and little flecks of yellow
that could be bees darting between them
is here
and she takes my hand and says
‘Shalom aleichem’
and I said
‘Salam alaykum’
and I probably said it wrong
but she smiled
and went to get a name tag
and more people began to arrive
and some of them were Jews and
some of them were Muslims and
all of them were chatting
and I could hear
‘Ramadan Mubarak’
and ‘Shabbat shalom’
and ‘Shalom aleichem’
and ‘Salam alaykum’
but so many people were talking
the languages merged and
were siblings again
and so were we.
and we go upstairs
slowly side by side
to the sanctuary
with Hebrew across the walls
and the words
‘Wait quietly for God, O my soul
for my hope comes from God’
and we are not being quiet
so God must have arrived
along with our guests
who pray with us while we pray with them
and my hope comes from God
but it comes from this too
from my Jewish family holding open the doors
for my Muslim family to break their fast
without a wait
and from the reminder to
‘sit beside someone you don’t know
Yet’
and hearing one conversation in a mix of
broken Arabic
and broken English
and broken Hebrew
and all I can hear
is ‘shalom aleichem’
and ‘salam alaykum’
and I think in this moment
Peace may be upon us all.