The Kirkland Performance Center holds 402 people.
“I hope it’s packed,” said the Rev. Marian Stewart of what her church and more than 10 others are planning Sunday.
That’s a day of national commemoration, for one of the most apocalyptic events in American history, the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
But those observances are national. What Stewart and others are trying to devise is a way to do something local, to find a way where people in their own community — in Kirkland — can physically remember those events of a decade ago.
“That’s all I can do, is local,” said Stewart, minister of the Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church.
This is the second year such an event has been held here. About 300 people came last year.
“It’s a bigger tent,” she said. “We invited everyone.”
Stewart said the concept, which is embracing a broad range of religions, from Lutherans and Mormons to Muslims and Jews, is to try to resolve differences and overcome ignorance.
“One thing 9-11 did, it was a common experience,” she said, and from that, people can find strength, a bonding. “You’re still seeking that, how do you come together?” she said.
Stewart added that another part of the reason for the Sunday gathering is to realize that despite differences, religions share common values, ones that don’t call for acts of terrorism, despite the religious justifications sometimes cited to support such acts, whether on 9/11 or machine-gunnings in Norway.
“Every major religion has some version of the Golden Rule,” she said. “Extremism in any religion can be very dangerous.”
The session at the performance center, 350 Kirkland Ave., will be from 1-2:30 p.m. Sunday.
The city’s mayor, fire chief and police chief will be among those speaking.
Sponsoring organizations include the Northlake church, the IMAN Center of Kirkland, Temple B’Nai Torah, the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, Holy Spirit Lutheran Church, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, the Northshore United Church of Christ, the Woodinville Unitarian Universalist Church of Christ and Together We Build.
More information is available on the Internet at www.northlakeuu.org.
