Blessing Tent

Priests and deacons from the Center of Light, a Christian mystical spiritual school, will be giving powerful blessings for people to receive healings. This is a way to speed up the process of clearing out negativity inside to make a space for inner peace.

Labyrinth Walk 

Walking the labyrinth both symbolizes and helps facilitate the process of going inside to the center of one’s being…an essential practice for cultivation of inner peace.

Peace Lounge 

Sit, relax and soak in the energy of the Peace Lounge while you meditate, chat with other festival goers or listen to music from the main stage.

Peace Stations 

An exhibit that brings consciousness to some of the issues facing our city. Write your prayers for Chicago down and plant a seed to represent the birth of our new intentions.

Facebook Peace Tent 

This interactive exhibit utilizes the power of social media and the internet to spread peace through the digital world. Choose a peace sign to have your picture taken, then post it directly to your Facebook page to proclaim your dedication to peace.

Kids Peace Activities 

Activities for children include making prayer bracelets, peace doves and other arts & crafts. Also featuring free face painting, balloon animals and large bubble wands.

11:30am: Soto Zen Buddhist Chanting by Ancient Dragon Zen Gate

12pm: Opening Ceremony by Mother Clare Watts, Centers of Light

1pm: Rich Logan & John Schwartz, Kirtan

2pm: Kenny Kolter, Gong Meditation

3pm: Peace Panel:

• Mother Clare Watts, Christian mystic and priest, Centers of Light
• Maya Tiwari, Vedic monk and Founder of Wise Earth Monastery
• Merwyn De Mello, Co-Director of the Christian Peacemaker Teams
• Darrell Jones, Spiritual Counselor at Bodhi Spiritual Center

4:30pm: Kathleen Lahiff, Harpist and Swami, Temple of Kriya Yoga

7:30pm: Ho Etsu Taiko Drumming

8:00pm: Shine Your Light for Peace Parade

Mother Clare Watts is an ordained Priest and Master Teacher in the Order of Christ Sophia. She began her early training in the late 1970s after studying in yoga ashrams and a Sufi training school. In 1984, she was ordained a Minister-Deacon in the mystical Christian tradition, and served as such in Kentucky and later in Massachusetts, where she was ordained a Priest in 1996 and a Master Teacher in 2001. She is the co-founder and co-director of the Order of Christ Sophia, which operates 11 Centers of Light around the United States. Mother Clare wears purple robes, signifying her standing as a Master Teacher, equivalent to a Guru in the Eastern traditions.

Mother Clare is the author of Giving Birth To God: A Woman’s Path to Enlightenment, an autobiographical book chronicling her life of spiritual seeking and the process that led to her being ordained into spiritual Mastery in the Christian mystical tradition. Mother Clare’s most recent book, Mystical Roses of Peace, contains some of the most powerful seminars she has delivered over the past decade.

Maya Tiwari

Having served more than a quarter century as a Vedic monk, belonging to India’s prestigious Veda Vyasa lineage, Maya Tiwari has been praised as a World Peace Leader by the Parliament of the World’s Religions for her outstanding work in creating inner harmony, health and wellness in the world. Maya’s time-tested ability to inspire and create change in human behavior and understanding is a matter of flawless record from the past 27 years of her devout work in the United States and around the world. She founded the Wise Earth School of Ayurveda, Mother Om Mission, and the Living Ahimsa Foundation, and received the prestigious Dhanvantari International Award in 2011 for her pioneering work in Ayurveda education. She also recently received the Rishi Award from AAPNA for her outstanding work in Ayurveda.

In November, 2010, Maya made the decision to renounce her monastic title and spiritual moniker-Her Holiness, Sri Swami Mayatitananda-and, as she puts it, “walk a simpler and more accessible life in service of the populations in need.”

Merwyn De Mello

Merwyn is the Co-director of the Christian Peacemaker Teams, an organization that builds partnerships to transform violence and oppression.  He grew up in Nairobi, Kenya and Mumbai, India.  Merwyn served as a Catholic Lay Missioner with Maryknoll Lay Missioners from 1993 to 2009. In Japan, he worked as an immigrant rights advocate and community organizer to change policy for asylum seekers.  In Tanzania, he co-coordinated projects in thirteen refugee camps on Tanzania-Rwanda-Burundi borders and developed community education programs on advocacy and peacebuilding.

At the Institute of Peace, Leadership, and Governance in Mutare, Zimbabwe, he designed and taught courses in Transitional Justice and Trauma Healing, Peacebuilding, and provided coordination for peacebuilding strategy development in Harare, Zimbabwe.  More recently, in Mumbai, he coordinated programs for promoting honesty, transparency, and accountability in governance.  He worked initially as the Recruitment Manager and subsequently as Training and Educational Programs Manager at Maryknoll Lay Missioners through December 2011.

Darrell Jones

Darrell Jones, licensed spiritual counselor, brings over 8 years of study and practice to his work, providing loving, nurturing and transformative one on one counseling. Darrell works to help facilitate the awakening of inner wisdom in the individual, groups, organizations and communities willing to deepen their understanding and expand their quality of life.

Licensed in 2008 by the Bodhi Spiritual Center and the Centers for Spiritual Living, Darrell offers his services not only to the individual but also to groups and organizations through workshops, classes, and speaking engagements. Darrell sees clients at the Bodhi Spiritual Center in Chicago, IL and Be Optimal Holistic Health Center in Glenview, IL. In addition, Darrell is available for phone sessions. He is also available to administer wedding and baby blessing ceremonies.

Ancient Dragon Zen Gate is a community of practitioners committed to being a home for Soto Zen Buddhist meditation practice in Chicago. In the Four Great Vows, which is chanted in every meeting, practitioners affirm their awareness that Dharma gates are boundless. That is, that the opportunity to encounter Buddha’s teaching, right in the middle of daily lives, is always present.

Rich Logan and John Schwartz, Kirtan

Rich Logan has traveled the world studying and teaching music, massage therapy, and Yoga. In addition to playing in Chicago kirtan groups Devi 2000, The Ananda Bliss Tribe, Jagati, and AcoustiKirtan he has served the yoga community through carrying the physical and devotional teachings of yoga to many centers throughout Illinois. John Schwartz first found the practice of mantra through the books of Thomas Ashley-Farrand.  Soon after he found kirtan chanting, a way to marry his love of music with his spiritual practice as a Kriya Yogi.  He is now a minister-in-training at the Center of Light.

Kenny Kolter, Gong Meditation

Kenny approaches a gong meditation with a subtle rhythmic quality, teasing out the vast array of tones, harmonics and shimmering nuances that reside within the instrument. The result is that these sonic, mystical characteristics provide a vehicle for quieting the mind and body. Kenny has been a featured presenter at the Illinois Rehabilitation Association Conference in April 2010 and at the Northern Illinois Rehabilitation Nurses Association in November 2010. He has traveled and performed internationally as a professional musician.

Ho Etsu Taiko

Ho Etsu Taiko is a Japanese drum ensemble based at Chicago’s Midwest Buddhist Temple. As we continue to build upon our unique Taiko foundation stemming from both Japanese and American influences, our group aspires to bring a youthful and energizing sound to the stage. Taiko (太鼓) is Japanese for large drum and is a centerpiece in the performance art of Japanese drumming. The style played, today, is called kumidaiko, a style of ensemble taiko performance.

Kathleen Lahiff, Harpist

Katie has long been a student of spiritual teachings from all the major religions. Her interest in yoga led her to become certified as a teacher of Hatha Yoga and ordained as a swami from the Temple of Kriya Yoga. Over the years, she has led music meditations and taught courses in spiritual and philosophical matters. Katie has been playing the harp for 5 years and is currently a third year student in the School of Music-Thanatology through the Chalice of Repose Project under the direction of Therese Schroeder-Sheker.