*Lead us to your abode of peace*<sup>8</sup>

The ultimate purpose of the 9/11 service was certainly beyond the commemoration of the sacrificed. Proactive activism toward the world's peace and reconciliation was the very reason why the 9/11 service was planned and offered. The prayers encouraged *proactive* activism, which means that they wanted the participants to be swift and vigilant in preventing any similar (religiously oriented) tragic violence upon human lives. All the four end goals and three liturgical principles articulated above are activism-oriented reflections of that ultimate purpose in varying degrees.

As the above prayer quote from the 9/11 service indicates, the ethos of the pilgrim or pilgrimage existed throughout the service, though not explicitly. Put briefly, by the pilgrim ethos, the service reminded the audience that we are all temporary residents of this earthly place where we continue to walk on the shared journey of life toward the One Source who is the foundation of all life and all creation.<sup>9</sup> Under this shared One Source, all, in spite of many differences and biases—not least in religious faiths—are expected to love and serve each other as beloved brothers and sisters. In my humble opinion, it would be great to adopt this pilgrim ethos as a central topical thread, in a more robust way, that may weave the whole liturgy and that each faith tradition may apply to the construction of their prayers. This central topical thread may have helped achieve better coherency of the service, which was somewhat lacking due to the presence of multiple faith traditions at once.

Finally, as Bass also points out in her interview, people of the 21st century across all religious terrains are yearning for religious activities that are more about genuine experience, authenticity, service of others, relationship, community, religious harmony, and openness in beliefs instead of religious dogma, power, hypocrisy, unchecked authority, judgement, religious conflicts, and individualistic piety. The 9/11 interfaith service, though limited, sincerely adopted these felt needs of the people into its design and practice. Furthermore, the service encouraged the participants to do the same—meeting the same needs of the people—in their own contexts for the same ultimate purpose. In that aspect, the 9/11 interfaith service seems to be an ongoing, never-ending invitation and encouragement to all.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding. **Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable. **Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The author declares no conflict of interest.

#### **Notes**


<sup>9</sup> It is interesting to realize that all six faith traditions present in the 9/11 service have their own historical concepts and experiences of pilgrimage in their own religious contexts. Thus, it would not really be a foreign task for them to further develop their own pilgrim/pilgrimage concept for the purpose of the interfaith service.

## **References**

Bhabha, Homi K. 1994. *The Location of Culture*. London: Routledge.

Boyce, Travis D., and Winsome M. Chunnu. 2020. *Historicizing Fear: Ignorance, Vilification, and Othering*. Louisville: University Press of Colorado.

Chandler, Daniel. 2002. *Semiotics: The Basics*. London and New York: Routledge.

Ching, Julia. 1993. *Chinese Religions*. Maryknoll: Orbis.


Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. 2003. *Metaphors We Live By*. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Ryu, Dong-Shik. 1965. *The Christian Faith Encounters the Reglions of Korea*. Seoul: The Christian Literature Society of Korea.

Turner, Victor W. 1969. *Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure*. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

WNET. 2013. Diana Butler Bass Extended Interview. *Religion & Ethics Newsweekly*, March 15. Available online: https://www.pbs.org/ wnet/religionandethics/2013/03/15/october-26-2012-diana-butler-bass-extended-interview/13585/ (accessed on 1 May 2022).
