WASHINGTON (RNS) — One block from the U.S. Capitol, at Lutheran Church of the Reformation, an interfaith crowd of D.C. community members gathered Tuesday (Jan. 6) for a night of music and remembrance five years after the Capitol riots.
They stood, hands over hearts, listening to the U.S. national anthem in Arabic. They sang along to Jewish nigun and melodized Sikh teachings. They sat in sacred silence during melodic Bahá’i prayers and waved peace signs to rap lyrics. Hosted by Faith in Peace Concerts and Faith in Public Life, the fifth annual Jan. 6 concert vigil was an exercise in interfaith connection and an effort to reclaim the day as one for harmony and peace.
Jan. 6 has also historically marked the Christian Feast of the Epiphany, which commemorates the visit of the Magi to baby Jesus. David Searby, the founder of Faith in Peace Concerts and a Christian, hated to see the day become known for divisiveness and anger. In imagining the first Jan. 6 commemoration service in 2022, he believed the holiday could be a perfect catalyst for interfaith connection. He explained that the Magi, or three kings, came to Jesus from the east— where many other great faith traditions, such as Buddhism and Hinduism, originated. Jesus was a Jew and is recognized in other faiths as a prophet. “It’s a date where you can really make a tie to all the different faith traditions,” he explained.
That first vigil brought around 30 people together outside the Capitol and featured sermons from religious leaders, organizers and performers.
“We were not there to protest or condemn,” Searby said in his opening remarks Tuesday, recalling that 2022 vigil. “But we were there to show a better way.”
Jeanné Lewis, CEO of Faith in Public Life, noted that the root of the word “epiphany” means “revelation.”
“It means insight. It means deeper understanding,” she told RNS. To her, the day marks an appreciation for a deeper, divine truth that reveals love and compassion and is “a beautiful contrast to the violence that took place five years ago.”
“We are here tonight because we believe that Jan. 6 can be a day when Americans come together and resist toxic partisanship,” Lewis said during her opening remarks Tuesday.
Karen Carlson, a longtime member of the Lutheran Church of the Reformation, said the events of Jan. 6, 2021, had profoundly impacted the church. Noting how close it was to the riots, she said there were “men running around with guns and things around our church.”
She said she attended Tuesday’s event looking for “some peaceful moments.”
This year’s event, an inaugural “Faith in Democracy Interfaith Concert,” garnered more than 100 attendees and featured artists performing music from the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and Bahá’i faith traditions.
“The values and principles of God have always been the same,” said Yusha Assad, a vocal artist who performed a rap inspired by Quranic themes of equality and unity.
“It’s the same principles,” he added. “Love, respect, guidance.”
But the event’s themes also resonated with those unsubscribed to organized faith traditions, including a multidisciplinary artist from Baltimore who uses the stage name Wordsmith. He emphasized the significance of human free will in the fight toward unity. “We make all these choices that are free, but then we also have the free choice to shut ourselves off from progress.”
Wordsmith hoped the night’s music could give attendees the chance to reach a new level of consciousness. Sarah Beller, a Jewish musician who highlighted themes of hope and action in her performance, was looking to inspire bridge-building.
“Humans have two pulls,” she said. “We have this pull towards love and connection, and we also have this pull towards division.
“We have to be intentional about awakening that kind of higher spirit of connection and love,” she added. “We can’t just leave it to happenstance.”
In contrast to previous years, which consisted of sermons and lectures, the 2026 event focused solely on musical expression. To many of the performers, neither the language nor religious tradition of the music hindered its potential to foster connection between people.
“Music is a language,” said Muath Edriss, a singer-songwriter and oud artist who performed at the concert. “When you can speak music, it doesn’t matter what language you’re speaking, because music will speak.”
The artists also emphasized that music’s ability to connect and inspire people has been proved throughout history.
Sonny Singh, a Brooklyn-based musician who channeled Sikh wisdom during his performance with Sukhmani Kaur, recalled the story of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh movement, who traveled through South Asia and the Middle East alongside a Muslim musician, challenging oppression and religious hypocrisy such as casteism and sexism.
“They knew that wisdom lands in the heart through music,” Singh said. “You can bring people in, grab people’s attention with music, and then hopefully they stick around to engage in conversation.”
Assad highlighted the intersection of faith, activism and music throughout Black history. “We’re talking about the African drum from African tribes. We’re talking about the Negroes who came out of slavery, who were using music and faith as a means to translate messages. Or tell stories. Or even give people the key to the Underground Railroad through music and faith,” he said. “The music has always been connected to our faith.”
Elena La Fulana, a Latin and bilingual singer-songwriter, performed at the first interfaith vigil in 2022. To her, this year’s event felt different.
“It feels like we just need to learn how to cope with bad stuff,” she admitted. To her, this event was less an urgent call to action, and more a mindful moment to embrace joy.
“Some stuff isn’t meant to change necessarily other people or the world, but it’s kind of meant to change us, you know?” she said. “It’s meant to strengthen us and change our own ability to cope and be a light for others.” Events such as the interfaith concert are opportunities to gain that strength, she elaborated. “I need that right now, for sure.”
“So many of us are overwhelmed and on the brink of despair,” Singh said, referencing communal disheartenment from policies of the second Trump administration such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and the National Guard deployment. “We need these moments to come together … to help us continue to hold our heads up high as we continue doing the work that we’re all doing in our respective communities.”
Pat Leitner, a D.C. resident, found the event to be a perfect way to commemorate both the Feast of the Epiphany and the anniversary of the Capitol insurrection. She hoped “to learn through experiencing, in a diverse group, how to be more serene in our society right now.”
“Serenity is a challenge,” she admitted.
John Wright Rios, another attendee, especially valued the event’s focus on music. Having been involved in faith-based activism for decades, he has repeatedly seen vigils and protests with heavy liturgical elements or rituals. Breaking from this format to highlight the universal experience of musical expression was deeply moving and “in some ways such a relief,” he explained.
“I wanted to see about how we express all of what we’re struggling to express in our hearts and minds and souls,” Wright Rios explained. “How do we pray to whatever we call the divine presence, for the energy to do what needs to be done?”
“I was not disappointed,” he added.
As the event came to a close, the night’s performers joined La Fulana on stage for the grand finale. She played her original song, “Let’s Stand Together,” written in response to the division and fear she witnessed on Jan. 6 as a D.C. resident. As she strummed her guitar, the audience stood and clapped along to the beat, repeating La Fulana’s lyrical call to unity.
“Let’s stand together / Stand for each other / And be united / As the children of the same mother,” the chorus sang.
This article was produced as part of the RNS/Interfaith America Religion Journalism Fellowship.