During the week of October 6th - 9th, 500 women from 60 countries gathered in Geneva, Switzerland to join forces at The Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders. Convened under the auspices of the United Nations, the conference was an outcome of the Millennium World Peace Summit held in New York two years before. Women of influence and means sat beside women who had only months before been indigent. Israelis and Palestinians, Indians and Pakistanis, South Africans, Afghans and Bosnians mixed with Asians, Latinas, Americans and Europeans, blending their distinct voices into a symphony of shared values and mutual respect. And all the while, George Bush talked of war.

We prayed together, these women and I, in English and French, in the melodic syllables of Hawaiian and Spanish, in the resonant thrum of the sacred Aum. When the talking and the listening and the praying was done, we broke bread. We embraced. We stood in the English Garden that bordered Lake Geneve` and formed the word PEACE with our bodies to make visible the earnest supplication of our hearts. And all the while, George Bush talked of war.

What was remarkable about the assemblage was how quickly this disparate group of strangers became friends. I sat beside an Israeli woman at dinner one night who told me that at the very moment I joined her she had been praying for "just the right person" to sit next to her. It does something to the quality of a relationship and the commitment you feel toward another to know that you are an answered prayer. One afternoon, I looked by chance into an Afghan woman's eyes and discovered that the silence that passed between us left an indelible imprint on my heart. Another day, my heart swelled with pride and hope as I listened to a 27 year old Bosnian architect describe her efforts to rebuild both her town and the spirits of her young countrymen. I listened to the most intimate details of Everywoman's pain, our cries for peace, our prayers for peace, and the ways in which we now work to make peace a reality. I felt honored to be in the company of these women, women who consciously chose not to let victimization or revenge become their lifestyle, women who use their sorrow to become living embodiments of dignity, compassion, and peace. And all the while, George Bush talked of war.

Though the conference organizers spoke daily with the world press, news of war dominated the air waves and nearly every column inch of the newspapers. Though we knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the time had come for women of all faiths to take a more active role in the world's peacemaking, the world did not know of our resolve, did not know that the nurturers and healers and educators of the family had begun to pool our financial, intellectual and, most of all, our spiritual resources to redress the pain that war will never ameliorate. Dr. Alice Shalvi, an award-winning lecturer and human rights advocate, told us that the Hebrew word for "voice" is the same as the Hebrew word for "vote," and urged us -- we who comprise 53% of the world's population -- to exercise our vote to make our voices heard. The Venerable Tenzin Palmo, a Buddhist nun from India, said it this way: Will Americans use the events of 9 /11 to fuel our anger or our desire for peace? Will we create a third world war, a war where there will be no winners, or will we transform our concept of security into a vision that transcends military posturing and embraces the deep, inner security that is a pivotal experience of every religion?

Now is the time for women and men of all nations and religions to call on the power of the human spirit. We must pray, pray from the disparate, wounded places within ourselves and from the centrality of every human soul that is whole and pure, that has no specific nationality or gender or corner on Truth. We have no choice now but to
make peace possible.

Margaret Wolff
Copyright October 15, 2002

Margaret Wolff is a writer and educator. Her new book, In Sweet Company,
Conversations With Extraordinary Women About Living A Spiritual Life, is
available through her website at www.InSweetCompany.com.

For information about the conference or to obtain a copy of the Geneva
Declaration of Woman for Global Peace and Justice, contact
WomensSummit@ruderfinn.com or www.MillenniumPeaceSummit.org.

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