At interfaith service, locals celebrate unity

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Different languages, religions and ethnicities came together at the Baha’i Center of Nassau County in Valley Stream on Nov. 18 to celebrate unity at a special Thanksgiving service organized by the Valley Stream Religious Council.

Members of the various local houses of worship offered prayers, sang with each other and passed around a collection plate to benefit Doctors Without Borders’ relief efforts for Syrian refugees.

Karen Renna, of the Baha’i Center, took to the podium to recite a “prayer for humanity,” by Abdu’l-Bahá, the eldest son of the founder of the Baha’i faith. Renna got choked up as she read the prayer.

“I was standing in a room filled with almost all of the houses of God,” Renna said. “We’ve got Islam there, we’ve got all forms of Christianity, and Judaism and the Baha’i faith, and when I get to the line, ‘Let the religions agree,’ that’s when I lost it, because here we all are, in one little place, and we’re all here in harmony and for the love of God…that’s an amazing thing. In a world so filled with strife today, that’s an amazing thing.”