The late George Nakashima had a spiritual dream as he was waking from the fog of anesthesia after surgery about 10 years ago.

The black walnut altar for peace, weighing nearly half a ton and housed in a cathedral in New York City, is the result of that dream.

The designer-craftsman's dream to create a peace altar on each continent continues to grow through the efforts of his daughter, Mira Nakashima-Yarnall of Solebury Township.

A second altar for peace, designed by Nakashima-Yarnall from her father's drawings and crafted by Gerald Everett of New Hope, was recently completed. Made from slices of the log her father used for the first altar, Nakashima-Yarnall said she hopes to place it in Russia in a location where people of all faiths can use it.

The second altar, housed temporarily near the first at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, where many interfaith services are held, was used last month in the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.

It will be sent to Russia as soon as Nakashima-Yarnall can raise enough money to cover the cost of making and shipping it. Funding also is needed to pay for exporting a cultural program along with it. At least $50,000 is needed, she said.

Nakashima-Yarnall is seeking contributions for a third altar proposed for delivery to India. Authorities there would like an altar by Feb. 29, she said. Wood for it will have to come from one of three other walnut logs Nakashima-Yarnall considers suitable for a peace altar.

The first altar, measuring about 10 square feet square, was built by Nakashima in 1986 and placed in the Episcopal—but also interfaith—cathedral four years before Nakashima's death in June 1990.

"It's an incredibly beautiful table. It's like someone had taken a tree and unfolded it like a book," said William Logan, director of communications for the cathedral. "It's one of the glories of the interior of the cathedral."

Nakashima-Yarnall said her father "found these special boards, and decided they wouldn't be just ordinary tables; they had to be something special. He went in for surgery and was coming out of anesthesia and had this dream about peace altars."

The dream was spiritually inspired by the philosophy of Sri Aurobino and Mira, the mother of the ashram in Pondicherry, where Nakashima spent time before World War II, his daughter said.

"The philosophy is what motivated him to do what he did," she said, "working from nature, working with his hands." Nakashima-Yarnall has seen the impact of her father's creation on those who visit the cathedral.

"In its daily use there, it is very effective. People just go and put their hands on it and feel it," she said.

Tax-deductible contributions to help cover the cost of building the altars may be made to the altar for peace foundation, 293 Aquetong Road, New Hope, Pa 18938.