Offering a Prayer of Peace for My Fellow Earth Citizens

Today, June 15th, is a special day for me and for many others. It is Earth Citizen Day.

I hosted the New Millennium World Peace and Humanity Conference with many honored guests and twelve thousand participants on June 15, 2001 in South Korea. At the end of the event, one thing became very clear to everyone who was there:

We must identify ourselves as Earth Citizens and hold that identity superior to any identity, race, or religion in order to bring peace on Earth.

I’ve celebrated June 15 as Earth Citizen Day since 2001, with a strong belief that this simple concept can help shift the fate of the planet and help return humanity to a healthy, happy, and peaceful state of being.

The first effort required to make real change in today’s world is a simple willingness to see our true identity as human beings completely and irrevocably connected to this amazing planet Earth.

We must simply be willing to see ourselves as great and beautiful expressions of the marvelous variety of life Earth has given to the cosmos. We must believe that we have a special role in helping bring humanity to its full expression through the individual, day-to-day choices we make.

On this special day, I offer this Prayer of Peace with my most heartfelt sincerity. I hope you can join me.

Prayer of Peace

I offer this prayer of peace
Not to the Christian God
Nor to the Buddhist God
Nor to the Islamic God
Nor to the Jewish God
But to the God of all humanity.

For the peace that we wish for
Is not a Christian peace
Nor a Buddhist peace
Nor an Islamic peace
Nor a Jewish peace
But a human peace
For all of us.

I offer this prayer of peace
To the God that lives within all of us
That fills us with happiness and joy
To make us whole
And help us understand life
As an expression of love for all human beings.

For no religion can be better
Than any other religion
For no truth can be truer
Than any other truth
For no nation can be bigger
Than the Earth itself.

Help us all go beyond
Our small limits
And realize that we are one
That we are all from the Earth.
That we are all Earth People
Before we are Indians, Koreans, or Americans.

God made the Earth
We humans have to make it prosper
By realizing that we are of the Earth
And not of any nation, race, or religion,
By knowing that we are truly one
In our spiritual heritage.

Let us now apologize
To all humanity
For the hurt that religions have caused,
So that we can heal the hurt.
Let us now promise to one another
To go beyond egotism and competition
To come together as one in God.

I offer this prayer of peace
To you the almighty
To help us find you within all of us
So that we may stand proudly
One day before you
As one humanity.

I offer this prayer of peace
With all my fellow Earth People
For a lasting peace on Earth.

*** I originally wrote and read this prayer at the United Nations Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders on August 28, 2000. The written version was shortened from its original version that you can see in the video above.

To learn more about the Earth Citizen Movement, visit .