Culture of peace
reflections 
Sheet One
September 2002
Culture of peace
reflections
Sheet One
September 2002
| "You
are fed up with words, and I don't blame you. I am nauseated by them
sometimes. I am also, to tell the truth, nauseated by ideals and with
causes. This sounds like heresy, but I think you will understand what I
mean. It is so easy to get engrossed with ideas and slogans and myths
that in the end one is left holding the bag, empty, with no trace of
meaning left in it. And then the temptation is to yell louder than ever
in order to make meaning be there again by magic . . .
“The real hope, then, is
not in something we can do, but in God who is making something good out
of it in some way we cannot see. If we can do God's will, we will be
helping in this process. But we will not necessarily know all about it
beforehand.”
Since September last year, many Friends have joined with others in being actively engaged in the important job of making visible our concerns for peace in the world. With a steady flow of new crises since then, even the most determined peace-activists have admitted to feelings of despair. But our despair comes from our compassion, our sense of the sacredness of all life on this earth, and from the stirrings and promptings we can experience in our meetings for worship. It is important to take time to reconnect with these. As Friends, our desire to act for a better world is not about ‘ideas’, ‘causes’ and ‘myths’ (although we might use these as vehicles for practical expression). Can stepping back from words and slogans and opening ourselves to God help us in sustaining and enriching our action for peace? One of the themes of the Decade for a Culture of Peace is ‘Listen to Understand’. How can our listening in worship help us in listening and in understanding the pain and needs of the world, the fears and hopes of our neighbours and of those in positions of political and economic power? How can this help us to become more focussed in our actions, acknowledging the despair but acting on the promptings of the spirit? Published by: Northern Friends
Peace Board |
