The annual interfaith peace walk will take place on Friday, commemorating the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Hundreds of Athens residents with varying religious backgrounds will walk around Athens to commemorate the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Students will gather Friday at 7 p.m. at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd on University Terrace to participate in the annual Interfaith Peace Walk.
The Rev. Evan Young, who created the event four years ago at the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, said he hopes more than 500 people participate in the peace walk.
“Religious conflict is the problem of our time, and I don’t think it has to be that way,” Young, the campus minister at United Campus Ministry, said. “I think it’s not necessary for religion to divide us, but we have to decide that we don’t want it to.”
Mara Siegel, the campus organizer for Better Together, an organization that focuses on bettering the community by bringing people of different faiths together, said her role is to bring attention to the campaign and recruit people to participate in the Interfaith Peace Walk.
“For me, (the peace walk) is more about the interfaith element that brings people together — working together despite differences in politics or religions, or any ideologies,” Siegel said. “It’s a chance for people to come together and be together despite differences that make it hard to interact with each other.”
Young said for four years, the peace walk has been his favorite start to the semester.
“People should come because it’s an opportunity to feel hope. It’s an opportunity to embody a different kind of vision for community. And it’s an opportunity to be with a community and with people from all faith traditions and walks of life,” Young said. “When I’m in that crowd, gathered for that purpose, I feel like peace is possible.”
The march will end with a candlelight vigil and song at the Islamic Center of Athens on Stewart Street.
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