PUPILS and faith groups from across Bolton came together to pray for world peace.

Bolton Interfaith Council organised a short ceremony to mark The Week of Prayer for World Peace at the Friends Meeting House, Silverwell Street, Bolton.

It was attended by people from Bolton Christian Community Cohesion, Bolton Council of Mosques, Bolton Hindu Forum and Quakers, as well as primary school pupils from Brandwood Community, St Peter and St Paul, Bishop Bridgeman and St Brendan's.

In recent weeks, the community has been shocked by terrorist atrocities including the murder of Alan Henning, who travelled to Syria with a convoy from Bolton, by ISIS militants.

Chan Parmar, from Bolton Interfaith Council, said “In a world full of turmoil and terrible suffering of innocent people, particularly like Alan Henning and many others, it is very inspiring to hear the prayers for peace from major faith groups and particularly children who also wrote prayers and read them so well.

“That is very inspiring for the future.

“On behalf of Bolton Interfaith Council, we appreciate everyone’s support for such an important event to mark the week of prayers for world peace.”

Jenny Crouch, a teacher at St Peter and St Paul's RC Primary, Pilkington Street, attended the ceremony with four nine and 10-year-old pupils who are part of the school's eight-strong chaplaincy team.

The youngsters and their teacher spoke about issues surrounding world peace in class and then put pen to paper.

She said: "They wrote a poem about peace themselves and they performed it at the event.

"The chaplaincy team has been going for about six months, including the summer holiday.

"We started it to promote faith within school.

"We're a Catholic school but with have Hindu and Muslim children as well.

"We've got a mix of children within the team. The prayers day was lovely.

"It was very thoughtful and the children came away and said they enjoyed it."

The Week of Prayer for World Peace was held ahead of United Nations (UN) Day.

Initially a Christian initiative, it was founded in 1974, but soon became an inter faith activity, and now welcomes people of all faiths, and none, to take part.