A Post-dated Remembrance Day Prayer

Remembrance Day Prayer 

Dear God,

As adults in this world, as keepers of the littlest of Your children, we are charged with the task of explaining how the world we live in actually works. Not least of which, I might add, is the insurmountable, alpine task of explaining to these innocent, wide-eyed children why wars happen, why people feel the need to kill one another, why hatred exists, the reason why their big brother or sister is never coming home again. I feel so unequipped for this task, O God. I can’t even begin to understand why these things happen for myself, Lord, let alone explain it to our most precious of cargo, and to be frank, oh Lord, I’m not sure that I ever want to understand that kind of hatred.
 

What I do know, O God, is that for all the evil man has created in Your world, for all the atrocities we see, and that we attempt to prepare our young to go out into, Lord, You are the good, You alone are the way, the truth, the light and the life. Despite all the bad in our world, or perhaps because of it, You have planted a mustard seed of talent within each and every one of us, a gift to be used for the establishment of Your Kingdom. 

I pray to You, O God, on this Remembrance Day, I beg of You, to help us remember the power which each of us has inside, the power to affect change, to be a pillar of light and of all that is good in this world, a pillar of Your love, help us to be Your hands, on earth, God, doing Your will, spreading Your message of love and salvation to everyone we meet, Lord, not through proselytizing, but in the way in which we live our lives, Lord, may we always seek to glorify You. 

For although we are fortunate to live in an area of the world that remains relatively untouched by armed combat, and although the war-torn areas of the world often seem so far away, Lord, the same blood that runs through their veins, runs through ours, and the same blood that runs through our veins runs through theirs, we are one. And if the peace that we seek, that we pray for each day, shall come to pass, the kind of all-encompassing world peace that will bring an end to war, hatred, and suffering, if that peace is ever to come and reign over all of Your children, Lord, it must begin with us. It is in our day-to-day interactions with other people, Lord, that we create that peace that can change the world. Please help us to use the power You have instilled in all of us, Lord, for good. Help us feel Your love for us, Lord, that we may forgive ourselves for our own missteps. Help us to share the love and to treat each person we encounter with respect and understanding, bearing in mind that the wars we send our young men and women off to fight, end with us, and our actions and how we choose to treat each other, with Your love. 

In Christ’s most holy name we pray,
Amen

Posted with permission from Aarika Black, Hamilton Congregation, Nov 11, 2012

Colloquy

This weekend I followed the activities going on in Independence at our (Community of Christ's) Peace Colloquy.

Friday night there was a webcast of the opening service that included an address by Terry Tempest Williams who received our award for 2011. You can still watch it on-line if you go to the web site. And you can explore her biography and all the reasons she was selected for this year's award. She's in wonderful company as the church has been handing out these awards since 2005 and the recipients represent an awesome group of folks who've done much to bring peace and justice into what sometimes appears to be an irredeemably broken world.

My experience this year was somewhat different as my Independence family was in full attendance and my very "plugged in" son was posting pictures and commentary throughout the experience. In fact, if you happen to be a facebook friend of Art Smith, you could have had a similar experience.

A colloquy is a somewhat high-fallutin' word for an informal conference, an expanded conversation really, about some topic. As a church dedicated to peace, reconciliation and healing the spirit, with a recently expressed mission to promote peace on earth, it does make sense that we'd choose the topic of peace to have such a conversation about. We're great at conversations! We're even great at honouring folks who've done something to promote peace. Why, right here in Canada East, we've got several congregations who've given peace awards to students in their community who appear to understand what making peace is all about.

I had a note from a friend the other day who shared with me how she works with the Victim/Witness Assistance Program in her town. She was responding to my identity post. I am truly grateful for her encouragement to seek out such a purpose in my own future.

I hope to be someone who does more than just carry out conversations about peace and justice. Noble and important as those are, the real purpose is to encourage us to find ways to be the peacemakers on the ground, in the place where we live, given the gifts that we possess. Really, every single recipient of the Community of Christ Peace Award has done exactly that. They were just ordinary folk who decided to go ahead and do something concrete to pursue peace on earth.

Pursue! that 's a pretty active word, don't you think?

Posted by Marion

Dismantling Barriers to Peace

On Sunday, September 11, 2011, a remarkable panel assembled at First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto. The panelists who met there were as follows.

Buddhist – Gen Kelsang Suma, Barrie Kadampa Centre
Christian – Darren Kropf, Mennonite Central Committee Ontario
Hindu – Bhaktimarga Swami, Hare Krishna Temple, Toronto
Islam – Imam Hamid Slimi, Chairman, Canadian Council of Imams
Jewish – Rabbi Karen Levy, Oraynu Congregation for Humanistic Judaism, Toronto
Unitarian – Rev. Shawn Newton, First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto

First Unitarian Congregation wanted to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of September 11, 2001, not by merely remembering the tragedy of the events which occurred that day, but in a way that might advance the cause of peace. As a result, they asked JW Windland of Encounter World Religions Centre to design and moderate this event. As usual, JW did that with distinction. The objective of the day was eloquently stated by JW in his keynote address; “We hope today to shift the focus for a while from images of tumbling towers to visions of peace.”

Each member of the panel was asked to address two questions.
1. Speaking from your tradition, how is peace understood?
2. What barriers to peace are there in your tradition and how is it actively dismantling these barriers?
Each responded to the questions, to each other, and to questions from the audience in an open, thoughtful and peaceful way.

I will not here attempt to summarize the comments of the six distinguished speakers, however I can tell you that it was quite clear that there was general consensus of thought. The idea behind that consensus was first suggested by JW Windland when he stated that the enemy is not each other, the persons within other nations or the ideas of other faith movements. The enemy is absolutism. The barriers to peace arise from absolutism, dogmatism, intolerance, rigidity, arrogance and ignorance within any faith. When we look at the thoughts or ideas of others as being inferior to our own, we have already taken a step away from peace.

The importance or success of this day cannot be measured in the eloquent words or phrases that were spoken, however. The success of the day is measured in the fact that representatives of six world religions were willing to come together, without fanfare, without flashbulbs and cameras, without the news media even being invited, just to talk to each other. The spirit of love and generosity was apparent in the voice of each speaker, and the barriers slowly melted as we shifted our focus from those “images of tumbling towers to visions of peace." We need more of this.

Posted by Carman