For faith leaders who have witnessed threats to religious freedom within their own communities, or watched them unfold across the world, interfaith solidarity can offer something increasingly important: the reassurance that they are not facing these challenges alone. That sense of shared concern took on particular meaning for Rev. Shola Olaiya at a recent religious freedom gathering in Schaumburg, Illinois.
Pastor of Good Success Assembly, a neighboring church of the Family Federation whose congregation is largely made up of Nigerian-born Americans, Rev. Olaiya brought attention to circumstances deeply affecting his community. In a sobering presentation, he spoke about violence facing Christians in Nigeria, including threats of death, kidnapping for ransom, and attacks targeting Christian communities.
Yet the gathering also offered a measure of hope. Rev. Olaiya learned that Universal Peace Federation (UPF) leadership in the United States has been communicating with government officials about religious freedom concerns in Nigeria and elsewhere. According to organizers, knowing that others were working to bring attention to the situation offered encouragement in an extraordinarily difficult situation.
The gathering brought approximately 60 to 65 people together, with at least half coming from outside the local Family Federation community. Longtime American Clergy Leadership Conference (ACLC) clergy were joined by new contacts and participants from Christian, Muslim, and Hindu traditions for an afternoon centered on religious freedom and solidarity across faith communities.
Ambassador for Peace Dr. Robert Renteria also addressed participants, sharing the anti-violence curriculum he developed from lessons drawn from his own challenging upbringing. The program has since been implemented in school systems in the United States and internationally. Reflecting on his relationship with UPF, Renteria told participants, “The Ambassador for Peace commission is one of my life's highlights.”
The afternoon took on a more personal tone as Rev. Joy Ramza Wood Sedehi and Dr. Bessie Tucker, both longtime members of Women in Ministry, offered tributes to Dr. Hak Ja Han, known as the Mother of Peace. Rather than showing a planned video tribute, organizers invited the two women to speak about what Mother Han has meant in their own lives. Both held back tears as they reflected on meeting her personally and on the teachings they encountered through years of involvement with ACLC.
Pastor Ezekial Mtetwa also shared biblical scripture as participants considered religious freedom not only as an issue affecting individual traditions, but as a concern calling people of faith to stand together.
Woven throughout these conversations was a principle central to Peace Starts With Me: peace may begin personally, but it grows when people learn to carry concern for others beyond the boundaries of their own communities. In Schaumburg, the challenges facing Christians in Nigeria, Mother Han’s confinement in South Korea, and violence affecting young people became shared concerns, bringing people of different faiths together in a spirit of understanding and solidarity.
As the afternoon drew to a close, the warmth of the gathering inspired a spontaneous act of generosity. Moved by the joy of the day, one Women in Ministry elder began offering cash from an envelope she had brought with her to the attendees around her. Many, touched by the unexpected gift, chose to donate it back toward the event—allowing one act of kindness to inspire another.
The gathering closed in song with “Our God Is an Awesome God,” as guests expressed a desire to remain involved and continue the relationships begun that afternoon. After hours spent confronting difficult questions of persecution, violence, and religious freedom, the afternoon ended in a spirit of connection and hope—different communities listening to one another, generosity answered with generosity, and new relationships beginning to take root.
