Our church, the Hagerstown Church of the Brethren, for the last several years has been celebrating International Day of Prayer for Peace with the Interfaith Coalition of Washington County, which I coordinate.  This year our event will be on Sunday evening, September 23, 5:00 pm, at the Dunker Meetinghouse on the Antietam Battlefield, Sharpsburg, MD.  We’re calling it our Song and Prayer Peace Fest.  We’ll have 18-20 different religious traditions each share a brief statement on peace, a prayer for peace, and a peace song. Besides a number of Protestant denominations, including all the historic peace church, we plan to involve Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Baha’i, Sufi, Unity, Adventists, Metropolitan Community, Hispanic, and Unitarian/Universalists.   During this week the community is commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day single-day battle of the Civil War, with over 23,000 casualties. So we have the present-day violence to ponder as well as memories of war from the past. A great place to pray for peace in our homes, our communities, the nation, and the world.  - Ed Poling

Read here for history of the Dunker Meetinghouse, a symbol of peace and love on the bloodiest battlefield in the United States