Yesterday's intermittent rain didn't stem the enthusiasm or energy of the Children of Abraham Peace Walk. For the sixth year in a row, a group of approximately 75 Christians, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Rastafarians, atheists, agnostics, and peaceniks (organized and sponsored by a large coalition of Brooklyn religious congregations) walked from one  religious institution to another with open hearts and curious minds.

The first stop on this uniquely Brooklyn walk was the Al Noor School, a private school on 21st Street and Fourth Avenue in Sunset Park, that provides a secular and Islamic education for grades K-12 and is one of the largest and fastest growing Islamic schools in the United States. The walkers went inside, where they learned about the school and watched "Cities of Light," a film about a time in Spain, over a thousand years ago, when Jews, Christians, and
Muslims, lived together and flourished.

From there the walkers walked to The Church of Gethsemane on 8th Avenue near 10th Street in Park Slope, a diverse Presbyterian congregation founded by men and women who have
been incarcerated, their families and friends. They share the church with Kolot Chayeinu, where Rabbi Ellen Lippman, one of the organizers of the walk, runs a progressive Jewish congregation made up of individuals of varying sexual orientations, gender identities, races, family arrangements,
and Jewish identities and backgrounds, who "share a commitment to the search for meaningful expressions
of our Judaism in today's uncertain world." A Vietnamese Buddhist group also uses the well-utilized space and the Children of Abraham Peace Walkers were treated to a brief chanting session with them.

I joined the group at the next stop on the tour: Congregation Beth Elohim on 8th Avenue and Garfield Place in Park Slope, where Rabbi Andy Bachman was waiting on the steps of the sanctuary. Once inside, he told the walkers that the synagogue was built in 1861 at the beginning of the Civil War. "Times change, communities evolve, institutions remain. Abraham Lincoln was president when this synagogue was built. Could the people praying here then have imagined our president today?" Rabbi Bachman asked the group.

Rabbi Bachman introduced Jacob, a 13-year-old boy who will be a Bar Mitzvah in November and asked him to explain the meaning of certain aspects of the synagogue to the group.

"This is the ark where we keep the Torah, the most sacred text in Judaism," Jacob told the group. "And this," he said pointing to a lamp "is the eternal light that doesn't go out."

"There has to be an eternal light, which is God's presence," Bachman interjected. "This one is a light bulb and sometimes it has to be changed. Don't tell anyone I told you that." Everyone laughed. "It requires a certain suspension of disbelief which is a legitimate theological position."

Jacob, standing on the stage of the sanctuary with an electric guitar, taught the group the words and melody to a song popular with members of the Israeli peace movement, which included the Hebrew and Arabic words for peace (salaam, shalom).

From there the group continued on to its final stop, the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture. Members of BSEC  welcomed the group as they walked up the steps of the elegant 1900 mansion, which is considered one of the best examples of the
rare neo-Jacobean style. It has been home to the Society since 1947.

The walkers sat down in the large parlor room of the mansion and listened as a member of the Society described Ethical Culture as a humanistic religious and educational fellowship that is ethics-centered. "We spell God with two O's," she said.

"The Society for Ethical Culture was started by German Jews escaping growing nationalism in Germany," one member told the group. "They were  immigrants hoping that democracy was more than a dream. They felt you could either do your good work with only your own or start something by joining with others."

Debbie Almontaser, one of the founders of the walk and a native of Yemen spoke movingly about Charlie Horowitz, the deceased
president of the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, and another one of the  original founders of the Children of Abraham Peace Walk. "He felt it was
important to take this walk to different parts of Brooklyn as a way to
broaden the Brooklyn community together," she told the group. Alomontaser, a veteran of the NYC Public Schools was the founding principal of the  Khalil Gibran International Academy, a dual language public school that opened in 2007. She forced out before the school opened its doors because of a flap about a misconstrued comment that she made.

Rev. Tom Martinez, minister of the All Souls Bethlehem Church in Kensington and one of the organizers of the walk, told the crowd that he knew that they were hungry and tired but that there was still one more item on the program.

"This year we've expanded to include Vietnamese Buddhists and now a Rastafarian. My friend Oosagyefo will read a poem."

Oosagyefo, a tall, handsome Rastafarian man with a rainbow colored knit cap on his dread-locked head stood in front of the room and performed his poetry using his arms with a dancer's grace.

Son of man tell Ian’ I
Something about life that have never
been said
Like how you will measured
The moments of infinity with
patient
Love your neighbor like yourself unconditionally
Entertain
strangers like they were your next of kin
Put an end to galactic wars

Sign everlasting peace treaty
That has no beginning and no ending

Like yesterday and tomorrow
Son of man tell Ian’ I
How to make this
earth dance again with your rhyme scheme 
How to breathe new life into
this ailing world with your prose
And how to rejuvenate this tired creation

With your metaphors
Write Ian’ I a poem to resurrect the dead
Give
sight back to the blind
Heal the cripple
Set the captive free
Make
your words sing a bittersweet Poetic melody
That even the Angels on Mount
Zion
Will once again sing in harmony
Yes we are knock knock knocking on
heavens door 
I say we are knock knock knocking on heavens door 

Yes we are knock knock knocking on heavens door 
Me say we are
knock knock knocking on heavens door.

And then it was time to break bread. This group of hungry and tired Christians, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Rastafarian's, agnostics, atheists and peaceniks enjoyed a feast of Middle-Eastern specialties donated by one of the great food shops on Atlantic Avenue. Participants spilled outside into the large garden of the Ethical Culture mansion and talked to one another, ate, and relished the sense of unity and shared purpose.