Praying for peace

Available for over a year

Good morning. What does it mean to me to pray for peace when every day brings news of violence? I see those who profit from war enriching themselves, while war’s victims are ignored, rejected, even vilified. Those who have power use it against those who don’t, at every level of society, and there seems little to hold them to account. I come back to the beautiful words attributed to St Francis: make me a channel of your peace; where there is hatred, let me bring love; where there’s despair, hope; where there’s darkness, only light. It’s embarrassing to admit, but the Quakers’ principal stance against war and conflict in all its forms, which we call the peace testimony, kept me away from Quakers for a long time. How could I find a place amongst these heroically peace-loving folk? I can’t even manage the school run without losing my cool, and the news makes me furious. I’ve learned that the Quaker commitment to peace is not a claim to perfect equanimity, but a journey, a daily choice, to put faith in human potential. As the Quaker founder Margaret Fell wrote, “We are a people that follow after those things that make for peace, love and unity”. Optimism about what people are capable of leads to practical action – not passive wishful thinking, but the hard, slow, unglamorous work of peacebuilding. It’s at the United Nations, in MP’s offices, in campaigns for prison reform and climate justice, in peace education in schools. It’s at my own breakfast table. May I follow after those things that make for peace, love and unity. May I choose hope over despair. May I be a channel of peace. Thank you friends.