After a day of destruction, the healing began with prayer.
On the night of Sept. 11, less than 12 hours after the first attack on the World Trade Center, thousands gathered on the south Lawn to grieve together. There were not even enough candles for all those who had come to the vigil, willing to overlook their religious differences and pray as a unified body.
Representatives from multiple faith groups shared portions of their tradition, infusing attendees with a powerful sense of spiritual commonality.
"Before we're Muslims, before we're Jews, before we're Christians, we're humans - creations of a creator, and we need a creator," second-year College student Dahlia Halim said. "That was realized that night. We need God."
What took place at the vigil, however, has not been confined to the realm of a single day or a single space. Interfaith dialogue and awareness at the University is transcending the boundaries of theological and denominational distinctions with a dedication to peace and understanding.
"I think for the first time we've become a family once again, a family of the University so to speak," said Religious Studies Professor Abdulaziz Sachedina, who spoke at the Sept. 11 vigil. "We are talking to each other more readily than we did."
The resurrection of the Interfaith Council is one manifestation of the emerging commitment to discuss religious differences and similarities.
The original council, which formed in fall 1999, fizzled out when one of its founders, Kate Rudy, graduated in May 2000.
Whereas the original council functioned as a part of the Student Council Religious and Ethnic Affairs Committee, the new Interfaith Council is independent.
"It's difficult for an arm of Student Council as a part of the University of Virginia to do much in the way of fostering real religious sentiment," said third-year College student Dustin Batson, who chairs the Religious and Ethnic Affairs Committee. "It became clear that we honestly just needed to do interfaith work and that required a religious setting."
Baha'i Association President Shadi Kourosh saw that the united religious efforts of the Sept. 11 vigil could be a jumping off point for a new council.
One of the primary tenets of the Baha'i faith is a belief in a "common divine foundation among all religions," Kourosh said.
"It's been an idea that had been close to my heart for a long time," said Kourosh, a third-year College student. "Working for fellowship and unity between people is important in any respect."
The Interfaith Council, which includes Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Baha'i students, plans to promote educational dialogues, fellowship and service projects between different religious groups, Kourosh said.
"Right now we're really developing our dynamic and planning," Kourosh said. "I think that we'll see the fruition of a lot of our effort in the spring."
Several projects already have begun. The Interfaith Council will host a Thanksgiving dinner, followed by an interfaith praise and worship service, at the Hillel Jewish Center on Nov. 19.
"In the case of any of our events, all students are welcome to come," Kourosh said. "I think that everyone's goal is to create a loving and inclusive atmosphere for anyone to come and praise and serve God together."
In this spirit, the Interfaith Council held its first social gathering Oct. 25 during an interfaith reception in the Rotunda. Students of various faiths mingled in the West Oval room and dispensed a combination of cocktail chitchat and serious religious discussion. By 6 p.m. people were still talking as caterers rolled up the buffet table cloth and cleared away platters of deviled eggs and sliced vegetables.
Fourth-year College student Anna Levin, who had been a member of the original Interfaith Council, said she thought the afternoon's event was significant.
"We can come together, proud of our own identities and share who we are," Levin said.
Being in the West Oval room resonated strongly with Levin as well.
The night before, in the same room, she joined with religious studies faculty members, students and community members for the CSPAN-filmed inaugural meeting of the Children of Abraham Institute - yet another example of a powerful interfaith movement at the University.
Children of Abraham seeks to bring together Muslims, Jews and Christians to study and share their respective scriptures with one another.
Ultimately, it endeavors to "discover pathways of peace in all three communities, and will also affect in a deep way the relationships among our three communities," said co-director Peter Ochs, a religious studies professor.
For the past six years, the Society for Scriptural Reasoning has pursued these goals among an international collection of theological scholars.
"We seem to have nurtured in this group a method of interpretation, of interpreting scripture, which is both scriptural and rational at once, which has the power to bring very religious people from very different traditions close together for a common purpose," Ochs said.
Children of Abraham hopes to perpetuate this process during month-long sessions for religious leaders, who can then apply those lessons in troubled areas such as Northern Ireland, South Africa and Jerusalem. Forums and discussions at the local level can serve as a prototype for what's possible internationally, Ochs said.
Currently, undergraduate and graduate groups center discussions on a similar religious theme and then discusswhat the faiths' scriptures - the Torah, the Bible and the Qu'ran - say about each other.
"It gets tricky when you reach a point where the traditions strongly disagree, but I think we know that it's necessary," said Batson, assistant to the director of Children of Abraham. "At the end of the day we're banking on the idea that that doesn't make us enemies, that doesn't preclude us from talking to one another."
While Sept. 11 may have heightened the immediacy of engaging in interfaith activity, Ochs said that the Western world has been struggling for years with a lack of interfaith understanding.
"We felt this urgent concern five years ago - that the West can't survive without this kind of activity," Ochs said. "Sept. 11 simply brought more tears to our urgency and a sense of - among the community that's gathered - a sense of horror at recognizing the symptoms of the absence of what we're seeking."
Leaders on Grounds said they are not discouraged by the difficulty of replacing religious isolationism with interfaith tolerance. It is the spiritual and humanitarian rewards for grappling with core religious beliefs that validates the struggle.
"If it weren't for the power and command and joy of divine presence and call, none of this would be worth doing or tolerable," Ochs said.
That power and command and joy course through the University community in a multiplicity of channels - including fellowship groups, places of worship and personal introspection. And many students have found that in searching for a divine presence, they are listening to each other.
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