By TPS • 29 March, 2020

Religious leaders of the various faiths in Israel gathered in prayer in the holy city of Jerusalem for the health of the nations of the earth as the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) spread to 199 countries and claimed some 31,000 lives.

The heads of all religions gathered at the Jerusalem Municipality on Thursday to pray on an open-air balcony while everyone kept a safe distance from each other as per the Ministry of Health’s regulations.

Jerusalem’s Mayor Moshe Lion, who hosted the prayer session, stated that “Coronavirus has caused many deaths across the world. It does not distinguish between religions, countries, nations, nor continents. The danger hovers above us all, and as such, the responsibility falls upon us all, upon each and every one of us.”

“Each will deliver a prayer to their God; may all the nations know that the name of God is one name,” he added.

The leaders included the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, Shlomo Moshe Amar, and Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, Aryeh Stern, Druze Sheikh Muafek Tarif, the Third Patriarch of Theopulus, the current acting Patriarch, Pierre Batista Fitzela, and the Armenian Patriarch, Noran, the Kostos Francisco Beaton, Sheikh Muhammad Kevan, and Sheikh Attel Atrash.

The religious leaders delivered prayers throughout the event, and the occasion concluded with the singing of “He who makes peace in the heavens, may He bring peace upon us” in Hebrew.