成人快手

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鈥檚 victims are ignored, rejected, even vilified. Those who have power use it against those who don鈥檛, 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鈥檚 despair, hope; where there鈥檚 darkness, only light.

It鈥檚 embarrassing to admit, but the Quakers鈥� 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鈥檛 even manage the school run without losing my cool, and the news makes me furious.

I鈥檝e 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, 鈥淲e are a people that follow after those things that make for peace, love and unity鈥�.

Optimism about what people are capable of leads to practical action 鈥� not passive wishful thinking, but the hard, slow, unglamorous work of peacebuilding. It鈥檚 at the United Nations, in MP鈥檚 offices, in campaigns for prison reform and climate justice, in peace education in schools. It鈥檚 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.