The Reverend Eido Tai Shimano and three monks from the New York Zen Center came to New Hope September 15, to commemorate the seventh anniversary, of the death of George Nakashima.

The ceremony was performed at the monumental Peace Altar now housed at the Minguren Museum on the Nakashima compound, using the Buddhist family shrine consecrated by Reverend Shimano six years earlier.

Members of the Nakashima family and workshop, Irene Goldman, Robert Hunsicker, and friends of Reverend Shimano attended.

Goldman traveled to Russia the week of September 21 to meet the vice-president of The International Center of the Roerichs to assess the possibilities of sending the Table to The Roerich Museum, The Academy of Sciences, or The Academy of Art in Moscow.

Hunsicker will be creating a documentary film on the life and work of George Nakashima in collaboration with Nakashima's nephew, John, for release in the year 2000.

This Peace Table, the second of the International Peace Altar projects to be built, was consecrated at the 50th anniversary of the United Nations at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City by the Reverend James Parks Morton in September 1995 and returned to New Hope in April 1996.

The table was originally intended for Russia in accordance with Nakashima's dream, but as intentions have been somewhat disrupted by Perestroika, the Peace Altar Committee is currently considering a venue in Jerusalem in order to further peace in the MidEast.

The third Peace Table built was consecrated and sent to Auroville, India, in February 1996. It serves as the spiritual meeting-place for this international community dedicated to peace, an offshoot of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry where Nakashima was a disciple.

Send inquiries about or contributions to the Altar for Peace project to 293 Aquetong Road, New Hope 18938