LEVERETT — Leverett’s 250th anniversary as a town, marked with various events throughout 2024, continues Sunday with an interfaith service bringing together 12 interfaith communities with music and wisdom.
“Sharing Divine Love for Peace,” free and open to the public, will be held at the Leverett Congregational Church, 4 Montague Road, from 2 to 4 p.m.
Each interfaith community will share singing, prayers, or another way to foster peace and love. Participants will also share some of their history and religious practices.
“We hope an interfaith service can remind us that we are so much more alike than we are different,” Lee Barstow, pastor of the Leverett Congregational Church, said in a statement. “Every human being wants to be happy, and our happiness depends on our conscious connection to each other, to the earth, and to all life. One powerful way we seek connection is through the community-building and practices of our wisdom traditions.”
Along with the Leverett Congregational Church, which was the town’s founding church in 1774, the service is sponsored by the Mt. Toby Friends Meeting, the New England Peace Pagoda and the Interfaith Opportunity Network.
Other participants will include the Bahá’í Community of Western Massachusetts, Hampshire Mosque / Islamic Society of Western Massachusetts, Hope Community Church, Hopping Tree Sangha, Jewish Community of Amherst, North Leverett Baptist Church and the Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst.
“When the town of Leverett was founded by our church in 1774, members of other traditions were not recognized,” Barstow said. “Today, though, we are served by a host of different faith communities. We hope this service will help grow our awareness that no matter the differences in each of our traditions, we are all after the same function, which is to grow the love and peace that is at the heart of our human potential.”
A reception will follow the service in Leverett Town Hall, located across the street.