The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints opened the doors of the Lima Perú Limatambo Stake Center in San Isidro, Peru, Tuesday evening, July 22, to host “Oramos por el Perú 2025,” a nationally broadcast interfaith gathering of prayer and reflection.
The annual event, organized by the Interreligious Council of Peru — Religions for Peace, brought together leaders from 14 faith traditions and top government officials, including Dina Boluarte, president of Peru, under the theme “Peace, a responsibility for all.”
Elder Juan Pablo Villar, who is a General Authority Seventy and will begin his service as president of the South America Northwest Area of the Church next week, welcomed the hundreds of guests in attendance, reported the Church’s Peru Newsroom.
“For The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is an honor and a blessing to host this interfaith prayer,” Elder Villar said. “More unites us than separates us. And our essential task is to focus together on meeting the great challenges of our time — especially those faced by the most vulnerable.”
Other faith communities involved include representatives from the Catholic Church, the Jewish community of Peru, the Anglican Church, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Islamic community, the Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church, the Bahá’í community and the Soto Zen Buddhist community, as well as evangelical and Indigenous communities, reported Peru Newsroom.
Elder Villar cited President Russell M. Nelson’s 2019 meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican, reaffirming the Church’s commitment to religious freedom, the family and the alleviation of human suffering: “We talked about our mutual concern for the people who suffer throughout the world and want to relieve human suffering,” President Nelson had said.
Church leads out in shared commitment to peace
The event marked the fifth year of Oramos por el Perú, held annually as part of the country’s national holiday celebrations. With Peru’s national independence day approaching, this year’s gathering emphasized the need for unity, reconciliation and shared moral responsibility.
The Church’s role in hosting the event — providing its meetinghouse, audiovisual support and musical direction — showed its growing presence in the country’s interfaith efforts and its long-standing humanitarian outreach across Peru.
“This meeting is being held here … and broadcast across the nation,” said Guillermo Estrugo, vice president of the Interreligious Council, during opening remarks. “Welcome to this moment of meeting, music and prayer and everything we love in the council to share.”
Prayers for all
One by one, religious leaders and representatives offered prayers for peace, justice, environmental protection, the poor, children, women, Indigenous communities and the nation’s leaders.
Salvador Piñeiro García-Calderón, Catholic archbishop of Ayacucho, pleaded for “harmony, forgiveness and reconciliation” to take root in homes, neighborhoods and institutions. “We cannot be indifferent to the pain of others,” he said.
Several leaders warned against corruption, called for ethical leadership and voiced concern over environmental degradation and political fragmentation.
Nonie Reaño Quinteros of Brahma Kumaris of Peru said: “Our actions determine our existence. Let us reflect with our hearts in our hands.”
Others called for renewed commitment to vulnerable communities.
The Rev. Roger Araujo of the Evangelical Presbyterian and Reformed Church in Peru, said, “We intercede for the most fragile of our nation — the poor, the sick, the elderly and those with disabilities.”
Between prayers, the Interfaith Choir of Peru offered renditions of hymns from the faith traditions in attendance, including “How Great Thou Art.”
‘We can literally change the world’
As the evening closed, Elder Villar once again addressed the audience, quoting President Nelson’s invitation to become peacemakers.
“Peacemaking is a choice. You have your agency to choose contention or reconciliation,” President Nelson said in 2023. “We can literally change the world — one person and one interaction at a time. How? By modeling how to manage honest differences of opinion with mutual respect and dignified dialogue.”
Elder Villar concluded with a prayer, asking God to bless the nation with charity, humility and the courage to build a better, more united future.
“We know that we are all different,” he prayed, adding: “We are a big family. Dear Father, help us be peacemakers in this troubled world.”
