At 7.30 p.m. Corine Mauch will appear at a rally in the Münsterhof, at 6 p.m. there will be an interreligious prayer for the people of Ukraine in the Grossmünster.
At 6 p.m., Orthodox, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus will meet in the Grossmünster to pray for peace.
When Christoph Siegrist heard about the Russian invasion of Ukraine last week, it was clear to him: the church must stand up for peace. On the same day, the pastor who works at Zurich’s Grossmünster church picked up the phone to organize a religious prayer. This is now part of a large orchestrated solidarity campaign that the city of Zurich is organizing on Monday evening for the people of Ukraine.
At 6 p.m. the bells of the large old town churches will ring, the Stadthaus and the Grossmünster will be illuminated in the Ukrainian national colors of blue and yellow. After the interreligious prayer, a civil society rally will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Münsterhof. The #StandUp4Democracy group had already called for a silent rally on the Rathausbrücke on the day the Russian attack began. Over a thousand people showed up.
Because this war is about every day, because pressure is needed on the Federal Council, because images of solidarity went around the world and had an effect, the group remained active and organized a second, larger rally in the evening, according to a media release From monday.
The Mayor of Zurich, Corine Mauch, appears in the Münsterhof. In addition, Sacha Volkov, Ukrainian-Swiss dual citizen and member of the Ukrainian Association in Switzerland, and Olga Feldmeier, company founder and native Ukrainian of Russian descent, will speak. The Ukrainian choir director Mariia Tokac will accompany the rally musically.
Russians and Ukrainians pray together
Singing should also play a major role in the Grossmünster. Christoph Siegrist, President of the Zurich Forum of Religions, has summoned ten representatives from different religious communities to say a prayer for peace. Among them is Branimir Petkovic, Serbian-Orthodox pastor and board member of the Forum of Religions, an association of religious communities and government agencies in the canton of Zurich. Petkovic will bring the Serbian Orthodox Choir, which will perform three songs in Slavic.
Petkovic represents the Association of Orthodox Churches in the Canton of Zurich. “We are aimed at all people, nationalities are irrelevant,” says the pastor. The tragedy in Ukraine affects Russians and Ukrainians alike. It is therefore also a matter of course for the Russian-Orthodox church community to join in the prayers in the Grossmünster on Monday evening.