GPF was founded in 2006, but this is the first year that U.S. cities are participating. The festival encourages programs that strengthen marriages and families, facilitate intercultural and inter-religious cooperation, and foster a culture of peace and service.

The official U.S. celebration kicks off Saturday in Washington, D.C. on the west lawn of the Capitol, featuring gospel recording artist Yolanda Adams and national and faith leaders such as Rev. Run, the Honorable Rev. Andrew Young and Rev. Michael Beckwith. But other communities are also planning celebrations that day.

“We are doing what we call a baptismal rededication of our different cultures and religions at Coney Island Beach,” Apostle Reverend Chaplin Carolyn Younger-Nolan of the Church of the Living God in Queens. N.Y. told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

Younger-Nolan said leaders from various religions “saw where it was time for this, to have Jews and Muslims and Christians set our differences aside and come together under one God. It will be the first time in history that Jews, Christians and Muslims will come together for sacred water ceremonies. ”

Younger-Nolan will lead the Christian baptismal, fully emerging candidates for baptism in the water. Water will be used various ways during each ceremony. In addition to a baptism, she said there will be a ritual from the Muslim, Catholic and Jewish traditions.

“These million acts of service and kindness may not seem to be associated with peace, but they are the seeds of peace. They make us more compassionate,” Archbishop George Stallings of Imani Temple, a Catholic church in Washington, D.C., said of Wednesday’s activities.

In D.C. and the Maryland suburbs on Wednesday, volunteers are expected to clean the Anacostia Watershed and the Greenbelt National Park. In Denver, creating peace means clean-up day in one community.

Denver’s Saturday celebration will be a day of fun for families at Paco Sanchez Park.

“We didn’t have a lot of time to do something as grand as we wanted or as diverse,” said Rev. Michael Hentrich, senior pastor of Families of Peace Church, a nondenominational place of worship.” But we figured we could make it a real festive and fun day in the park with the message ‘One family under God.’”

The event will feature international foods, music, sports and entertainment and lots of games for the kids.

“Peace is a personal thing, not a political thing; not an economic thing,” offered Rev. Hentrich. “America is supposed to be an international, multicultural nation--and we are. But we are not really a family. We want to have a family event where you feel the family, coming together and experiencing each other’s music and culture and getting a new vision of all people as one.”

Saturday’s official program in Washington, D.C. is scheduled to kick off at 5 pm, but there will also be a Service and Cultural Expo from 2-5 p.m. on the National Mall. Festival leaders will talk about stopping violence and creating new attitudes by serving others. The organizers of GPF hope this concept of giving and its relationship to peace will spread and that those who participate will continue their work of service long after the festivities end.

“We believe it is time to call America to live out her ideas and to embody them in her deeds,” Archbishop Stallings told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “That is why we are stepping out of the box, removing the walls that separate and divide us… At a time when race and religion are so much front burner issues, it is now time that we can transcend the limitations of our own human constructs and truly stand together.”

Just how does the Global Peace Festival with its multicultural, multi-religious events and volunteer service help create peace?

“They take us out of our own needs and desires and we see the needs of others and it makes us more compassionate and responsive to the others,” Stallings said.

“It has to start with the individual. I often quote Michael Jackson: I’m starting with the man in the mirror. I’m asking him to change his ways. If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and then make a change.”