On November 25th, 2019 song, prayer and children’s poetry featured in an interfaith service in Manchester Cathedral attended by a multi-faith congregation prior to the unveiling of a nine-foot statue of Mahatma Gandhi, the diminutive man of peace born 150 years ago.
The Cathedral was packed with faith and civic leaders, school children and interfaith representatives. Being one of the few present without Indian ancestry, made it more of a privilege to be invited and to share a meal later with other attendees.
The unveiling of the statue, located in the immediate vicinity of the Cathedral, was accompanied by singing and beautiful traditional and Bollywood-style dancing.
Manchester is buzzing with words and phrases like “diversity”, “hate prevention” and “multi-culture”, and these were evident on this day. Gandhi's statue is a reminder of his teachings, many of which align with Latter-day Saint thinking; they include:
- Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.
- Be the change that you want to see in the world.
- The day the power of love overrules the love of power, the world will know peace.
- In a gentle way, you can shake the world.