This morning we visited a unique church service at the Glide Memorial United Methodist Church. It is named after the Methodist philanthropist, Lizzie Glide, who donated the land in 1929 to build the first church there. Their current motto is: “Everyone is Glide. Come to a place where unconditional love changes lives every day and hope triumphs over sorrow. Everyone is welcome. Everyone is Glide.”

This church has been involved in community outreach and many politically and socially active movements for over 40 years. Their music ensemble and choir are famous for their high energy devotional service and performances. They were even featured in the recent movie called 'The Pursuit of Happyness' (sic).

We went there this morning as curious guests with a similar message of acceptance, tolerance and harmony among all peoples. Not having been able to schedule any formal type of ceremony with them, we went with the Torch and the hope that we could share some of our experiences with some of the constituency there. As it turns out, Francesco talked to the right person at the right time during the 'celebration', and soon we found ourselves on stage in a jam-packed church overflowing into the street.

There were thousands of people in the church at the time including a huge choir and ensemble of musicians on the large stage. People line up at the door up to an hour before they opened just to get a seat. Charter buses even come with busloads of people to attend a celebration service and now it was our turn to add to the celebration of the human spirit of harmony, friendship and oneness that was so prevalent there today.

Ahelee held the Torch high with pride and overflowing emotion, flanked by Francesco and myself as Banshidhar took photos and Salil shot video footage. I was told by Matt, one of the Ministers present, that I could say a few brief words about our activities. When we went up to the stage after a very short introduction by Matt as 'runners who are running around the world for peace', the place exploded with applause and standing ovations all around us, loudly and enthusiastically, for over minute.

With the microphone in my hand as I faced hundreds strangers beaming with enthusiasm, I thanked the church for having us and offering us their goodwill. I then explained how Sri Chinmoy, the founder of the World Harmony Run has brought the Torch to some of the most respected and important world leaders and sports figures such as Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Mohammed Ali and Carl Lewis among others, they began to really understand what we are all about.

Taking advantage of the high level of enthusiasm and energy there, we led them in a chant of our motto which is very close to their philosophy as well. In a huge wave-like fashion we had the whole congregation chanting, “Harmony begins with me.” It was a powerful moment as the spirit of the whole run seemed to be reflected in the energy and joy of the thousands of people present in the short span of a minute or so.

As we left the stage and walked back to our seats many people congratulated us and offered their words of support. After the service was over many more people were excited about holding the Torch outside the church, offering their hopes, wishes and prayers for a more harmonious world. This spontaneous and short meeting turned out to be one of the most exciting we have had so far in this city of diversity and acceptance.

San Francisco's weather is quite unpredictable at times. Afterwards some of us drove up to a windy overlook by the Golden Gate Bridge to take some photos and it felt more like the top of Mt. McKinley on a winter day than a late spring day in California. It was even colder here today than some of the weather we had in Alaska a few weeks ago. But the beauty of the people like those we have seen in the past few days here as well as today at 'Glide' have all brought enough warmth to our hearts to last the rest of our trip and beyond. The hope for a more harmonious world and peaceful cooperation among all people came a step closer to reality for us today as California, especially San Francisco, demonstrated its love, compassion and kindness once again.

We offer a special thanks to all of our friends here who have been treated us royally since we arrived a few days ago. We are especially grateful to our good friend Golapendu, manager of fabulous vegetarian restaurant, Ananda Fuara who treated us to a great meal throughout our stay in San Francisco.

Arpan, Francesco, Banshidhar, Salil and Ahelee

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