“O people! Consort with the followers of all religions in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship,” Bahá‘u’lláh commanded his own followers in His epistle of the Glad Tidings.

In that spirit I, and three to four-hundred others, ventured to downtown Minneapolis this evening for Minnesotans Standing Together - A multi-faith prayer service for respect. The service began and ended with bagpipes, surrounding comments, prayers, songs, chanting, and meditation from the Christian (Lutheran, Unitarian, Catholic), Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Bahá‘í, and Buddhist faith traditions (a Lakota speaker was unfortunately absent). These were words of unity, love, and respect for one another — and a call to actively show those feelings, to uphold them in society in the face of enmity, rancor, and hate.