Rabba Kaya Stern-Kaufman of Great Barrington MA founded The Interfaith Peace Chant. The Chant group meets monthly at the Quaker Meeting House in Great Barrington,MA to pray together from all faith traditions, for Peace. We have had spiritual leaders attending and leading chants from the Christian, Sufi, Sikh, Native American, Buddhist and Jewish traditions so far.
The vision statement is:
The Interfaith Peace Chant honors the integrity of all faith traditions and welcomes people from all faiths to express their unique voice for peace.
We recognize that focus on peace through prayer and chant brings a sense of inward and outward peace for oneself and the world.
Joining together each month as one community, with a focus on peace, we honor our diversity and our unity through this act of spiritual activism.
Please join us, as we deepen our commitment to manifesting peace in our selves, in our community and in the world.

Gathering for about an hour, the participants begin with a statement of intention about this work Then a leader will introduce their chant/prayer- explaining the source of the words and the meaning. They will lead often by call and response and the group will do each chant for 5-10 minutes. Each chant is followed a period of contemplative silence for several minutes. Then, the next leader will introduce their chant, with a teaching from their tradition or perhaps a spiritual story. The group chants together in a variety of languages and each chant is always followed by periods of quiet contemplation. There is a peace that is evoked within each participant and which flows through the group. Usually there are about 5 chants during the hour. Chants have been in Hebrew, Latin, Sanskrit, Hindi, Cree and Arabic.

Rabba Stern-Kaufman sees this work as a Tikkun for the Tower of Babel- wherein the people were of one mind and used that singular focus for egoistic aims. In the story, God divides the people through languages to thwart their coming together to achieve destructive goals. "Our Interfaith Peace Chant intentionally brings together people of many languages and traditions in a singular focus on Peace . We honor our unique traditions around peace prayer yet join together to experience the commonality, the unity within our diversity." She explained.

"As each chant has unfolded we have experienced the great wealth of human traditions that share the same desire to raise up a holy intention for peace. We experience our shared spiritual yearnings along with the beauty of our diverse expressions. It feels to me as if we raise up a spiritual bouquet to One Creator, to the Cosmos, to the world and to ourselves.

I believe that it is time for Interfaith Work to move beyond dialogue and begin to explore ways in which we can do transformative spiritual work together- spiritual work that honors the integrity of individual traditions but which moves us closer to one another as one humanity."

Rabba Kaya Stern- Kaufman is the Founder of The Interfaith Peace Chant. She was a RWB Student Fellow in 2009/2010. She was ordained in May 2011.