Cathedral to host eighth annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service

K.P. Singh, a representative of the Sikh community of Indianapolis, participates in the seventh annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service on Nov. 21, 2006, at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis. Singh will offer a spiritual reflection at this year’s service. (File photo by Sean Gallagher)

By Sean Gallagher

Indianapolis has long been known as the “Crossroads of America.”

The annual Interfaith Thanksgiving Service held each November at SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Indianapolis shows that the city is becoming more and more a crossroads for the world.

Representatives from the Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh religious traditions will gather with Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein at the cathedral on Nov. 20 for the eighth annual service, which will begin at 7 p.m.

Prelude music, offered by the Indianapolis Children’s Choir and the cathedral’s Laudis Cantores choir, will start at 6:30 p.m.
K.P. Singh, a representative of the Sikh community of Indianapolis, will offer a spiritual reflection during the service.

The prayer service will take place on the Tuesday before the civic holiday of Thanksgiving, and Singh sees its timing as appropriate for his own religion, which was founded in northern India in the 15th century and is today the world’s fifth largest religion.

“In the Sikh tradition, every breath is thanksgiving, every day is thanksgiving, every act of kindness is thanksgiving because this is what we believe,” said Singh. “God is love. To love God is to love all his creation. And every act of service is an act of thanksgiving and an offering to the creator God.”

But more than simply giving a reflection based on his own tradition’s teachings, Singh said that he hoped to highlight those spiritual principles which are held in common by people of many faiths.

“I feel very honored,” Singh said. “But, at the same time, I feel an enormous responsibility that what I say and what I do is said in a language and in a way that represents the true elements that bring us all together in the human family, as a family of God, as a family of faith.”

The faiths represented at the service emerged in various cultures around the world. And some of the representatives who take part in the service, including Singh, emigrated to Indianapolis from faraway places.
Singh thinks this diversity is a growing strength for Indianapolis.

“It only embellishes and adds to our richness as a community,” he said. “It really adds to our cosmopolitan nature. It adds to our international spirit.”

Benedictine Father Julian Peters, administrator pro-tem of SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral Parish, said he thinks it is fitting that the cathedral serves as the setting for an interfaith service since it is the church of the archbishop.

“Given the role of a bishop as one who promotes unity, there is an appropriateness that he would be one to host such a gathering of faith traditions,” Father Julian said. “And, also, it follows in the example of [Pope] John Paul the Great and others of bringing together leaders of faith traditions and people of goodwill.”
An offering of canned goods and monetary donations for The Julian Center will be collected during the service. †