Peace in Community

I've just spent four wonderful days at the Annual Meetings of the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches - one day at the Ministers' Pre-conference, and the other three at the Annual Meetings.

photo by Rory Castle-Jones

As usual, it was wonderful to catch up with friends, many of whom I have not seen since last GA (as the Annual Meetings are affectionately known).

The Ministers' Pre-conference included a gorgeous session about Metta meditation, led by Maud Robinson, which included a twenty-minute practice of this loving-kindness meditation. In retrospect, it set the scene for the whole GA, at least for me.

The AGM of the Unitarian Peace Fellowship was on the first afternoon of the Meeting proper. The Peace Fellowship was founded in 1916, the depths of World War I, and for the last few years, the theme of the gathering following the AGM has been connected to the centenary commemorations of this bloody, futile war.

But this year, 2019, our theme was "Where do we go next?" Nearly a hundred people turned up (twice as many as normal), and the discussion that followed was rich and fascinating. The hunger for peace, for Unitarians to be involved in social action related to peace, was palpable in the room.

Then later, it was time for Peace Vespers, led by the current ministry students. Again, the turn-out was greater than usual, and it was a gentle, peaceful end to the first day of the Meetings.

The following morning, I attended the morning meditation led by Richard Bober of the Meditation Fellowship, which grounded me for the busy day ahead.

In the evening, the Anniversary service was conducted by Maria Curtis and Andy Phillips, on the theme Knowing Our Place - an impassioned plea for humankind to take care of our world and each other.

On the final morning, the motion on knife crime was passed - more evidence of our desire for peace in our communities. At the end of the session, our Peace Fellowship Treasurer, Celia Cartwright, was inducted as President of the General Assembly.

I came home on Thursday afternoon feeling comforted and strengthened for the year ahead. I had experienced peace in our beloved community.

Silent Night, Holy Truce

Today I, and other ministers and worship leaders across the country, will be leading a Christmas service with a difference. I will be commemorating that special day in 1914, when ordinary soldiers at the Front "all the way from the North Sea to Switzerland" decided that their common humanity, their common Christianity, was more important than continuing to fight each other.

The Martin Luther King Peace Committee sent round a marvellous resource pack, entitled Silent Night, Holy Truce, from which I have obtained most of the material for the service. And I would like to share some words from this, and to reflect on them:

"Although the most famous, the Christmas truces weren't isolated incidents. They followed weeks of unofficial fraternisation by soldiers who discovered that, rather than being monsters, the other side were men like themselves, with a preference for staying alive rather than dying. Common humanity oftentimes broke through the propaganda images perpetrated by both sides. Throughout the entire war, many combatants managed, through the so-called 'live-and-let-live' system, to reduce discomfort and risk by complicated local truces and tacit understandings that enraged the high commands on both sides. Nonetheless, the truces are a key moment in the history of the period that reopened the possibility of a Europe based on peace and solidarity rather than imperial violence and nationalism.

We argue that the impromptu Christmas worship services held in no-man's land offer a glimpse of the church as it is meant to be, a new nation of peacemakers uniting former enemies in love and friendship as they celebrate the birth of Jesus."

And we Unitarians today can witness for peace too. Many individuals and congregations are members of the Unitarian Peace Fellowship, founded in the darkest days of the First World War. Members of the UPF "witness for peace and against the futility of war. Today our vision includes the ethos and values of the Charter for Compassion. The surest route to peace is through the compassion of human beings for each other, and for all living things. We support and encourage Unitarians in their witness for Peace and Compassion, locally, nationally, and internationally."

In this year of the centenary of the "war to end all wars", various countries around the world are in a state of bitter conflict with each other, or with themselves. The recent tragic massacre in Peshawar is just the most recent example of this. The efforts of everyone who believes in the possibility of world peace are needed, now more than ever. So that the sacrifice that the men in the Great War made, should not be altogether wasted.

I wish you a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy and Peaceful New Year.