Bells of all kinds could be heard ringing throughout Philadelphia on June 6, 2025, for Toll the Bell, an annual event that brings attention to our City’s gun violence epidemic on National Gun Violence Awareness Day.
The initiative, now in its second year, is a partnership with Interfaith Philadelphia’s Religious Leaders Council (RLC) and Zones of Peace together with Penn’s Office of the Chaplain and Penn Live Arts. The event combines an interfaith vigil, sound installation, and commissioned performances.
Members of our Religious Leaders Council offered powerful remarks and prayers at the launch vigil in University City. Speakers included Bishop Christopher R. Cooke (Archdiocese of Philadelphia), Rabbi Erica Steelman (Horsham Center for Jewish Life), and Mr. Kavneet Singh (American Sikh Council). Rev. Jay Gardner, Interfaith Philadelphia’s Zones of Peace coordinator, played a key role in organizing the event.
Rev. Gardner led the group in reciting the RLC’s “Pledge for Peace:
A Call from People of Faiths to Stop Violence.”
Following the vigil, more than 50 participants marched through the street, concluding at the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral.
“Ending gun violence can be synonymous with the values of different faiths,” said Rabbi Steelman. “I’m here as a clergy leader to join the effort of taking a stand to try to bring more love, peace, and equity into this world and, by doing so, trying to end gun violence, which affects everyone in different ways,” she said.
Rev. Gardner led the group in reciting the RLC’s “Pledge for Peace: A Call from People of Faiths to Stop Violence.”
