A message to all Forum members of peace and goodwill:
Week of Prayer for World Peace
21-28 October 2007
About the Week
The suggestion of an annual week of prayer for the peace of the world came from the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship in 1973. Three members of the Fellowship, Jack Jenner, Gordon Wilson and Sidney Hinkes went to Lambeth Palace to discuss the idea with the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Michael Ramsey, who expressed his support. The Week was inaugurated on 19th October 1974 in Westminster Abbey at a service at which the sermon was preached by the Archbishop.
Under the leadership of Dr. Edward Carpenter, later Dean of Westminster Abbey, the observance became an inter-faith project. He strongly believed that "prayer for world peace has to be offered by the world's faiths". Each year, the committee produces a leaflet of prayers for peace drawn from the major religious traditions of the world.
At the present time, the committee and the sponsoring body include adherents of the Baha'i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Zoroastrian religions, and prayers and readings from all these faiths are included in the prayer leaflet for the year. At the annual service, members of all the faiths are invited to take part and contribute from their own faith resources.
Participation in the work of the Week of Prayer for World Peace is welcomed from peace groups and faith communities, by providing material for the prayer leaflet, by nominating people to serve on the committee or as sponsors, by taking part in the annual service and/or organising a local observance.
(Source of this summary :
http://nfpb.gn.apc.org/Prayer/index.htm)
Posted on: 11 October 2007 by JWM
quote:
Originally posted by Bruce Woodhouse:
James
I do read it, perhaps I'm guilty of over-reading subtext. However you simply state that the secular view is 'often try once and give up', and you compare that with your approach. Pretty clear you believe non-faith individuals to be less committed, persistent etc.
We both recognise good will and actions on both sides, but you are guilty of generalisation here on faith vs non-faith grounds.
Bruce
Sorry, I accept I wasn't clear enough. I said 'a secular view' meaning 'one secular view', not a generic 'the secular view'.
Thus, I wasn't talking about the 'peace' thing specifically, but rather a more general comment about the downside of a 'throw-away' culture. And I am totally in favour of anything positive - faith or secular - that encourages us to 'keep trying', including this Week.
I think it is a very interesting point about Forces Chaplains. I think this really asks underlying bigger questions about the role of peace-keeping, the nature of legitimate deterrance/resistance in the face of threat/aggression, etc. (Is earnest seeking peace the same as pacifism?)
Chaplains (who are not just Anglicans, or indeed Christians) undertake a significant pastoral role for those who serve and their families. They accompany those in their pastoral care, sharing the danger, but do not, of course, bear arms. And in the RN at least, the senior service, neither do they carry rank, other than 'chaplain' - they are in effect the rank of the person they are with (I think it is a shame that this is not the case too in the Army and RAF, as I believe it would strengthen and clarify chaplains' role).
James
Posted on: 11 October 2007 by Bruce Woodhouse
quote:
Chaplains (who are not just Anglicans, or indeed Christians) undertake a significant pastoral role for those who serve and their families. They accompany those in their pastoral care, sharing the danger, but do not, of course, bear arms. And in the RN at least, the senior service, neither do they carry rank, other than 'chaplain' - they are in effect the rank of the person they are with (I think it is a shame that this is not the case too in the Army and RAF, as I believe it would strengthen and clarify chaplains' role).
I thought about that carefully, and I knew it was a contentious idea. Could chaplains not give personal and spiritual support out of uniform though? How about a statement that taking up arms by any individual (or killing another person wether combatant or not) is against the principles of religion?
It seems to me there remains an implicit religious (Christian in the UK) support of the military, perhaps dating to the time when soldiers fought for their God as well as their King.
On a lighter note a phrase from Blackadder IV before they go over the top. 'So tomorrow we meet our maker. In my case God, in your case Baldrick-God knows'
Posted on: 11 October 2007 by Beano
Is there a secret to success? For me, it lies in the ability to get the other person's point of view and see things from his angle as well as yours.
Or it could be the progressive realization that after several failures and you still haven’t lost the enthusiasm for adjusting one's efforts to achieving the worthy goal or ideal! That would be a success I guess.
Beano
Posted on: 11 October 2007 by acad tsunami
I am a great believer in the power of prayer. 'A week of prayer for world peace' may not bring about the desired result - this is true. All we can ever do to further world peace is make our own mind peaceful - we can't force peace on another person - and if prayer helps to this end then we do make a difference to the whole even if our contribution is tiny. We have to start somewhere and in this I completely agree with James. It is all to easy to say 'what can I do, I am only one' but if everyone took this view we would be no better than animals.
Posted on: 11 October 2007 by acad tsunami
Many Army Chaplains are both brave and compassionate:
"Rev David Cooper served as Chaplain 2nd Battalion Parachute Regiment (1982). He was present at most of the battles on the Islands and directly involved in the battles of Goose Green and Wireless Ridge, the former when his Battalion was outnumbered by a ratio of 3:1.
“I was busy trying to collect casualties. We'd got a lot, we couldn't get them out, this was the real problem and indeed, a helicopter had coming forward to try to take 'H' out was shot down. So, not unreasonably, the Air Corps were reluctant to come out and for some hours we were on and around Darwin hillside with dwindling ammunition and an increasing number of casualties and no means of getting them out. I decided I was going to try to get to one of the forward companies having heard that they'd got casualties and I walked up Darwin Hill to try to get to them. At the top I came to the Gorse line and I passed main headquarters said where I was going and tried to get forward and had the gorse hedge just shot apart around me. I was aware of an enormous amount of noise, of shots going by, of the hedge disintegrating in splinters, twigs flying about, something plucked my sleeve. I eventually got through it and lay down with a soldier who was in a small hollow and could smell whisky. We had a conversation about which of us had been drinking before I realised in fact the hip flask I had been carrying with Bob Fox's whisky in had diverted a bullet and the shot had hit the flask and glanced off to the left. In the event, and I rather regret it now, but I threw the flask away and said "Its no use to me, the Argentines might as well have it." Rev David Cooper
Posted on: 12 October 2007 by Chris Kelly
quote:
They accompany those in their pastoral care, sharing the danger, but do not, of course, bear arms.
My father was an RAF chaplain in the second world war,serving in the UK, North Africa and Italy. Demobbed in 1946, he joined the TA as a chaplain and re-enlisted as an army chaplain in 1949. He was sent to the Korean War with the Royal Ulster Rifles in 1950, where he most certainly carried a weapon. He served with distinction there and in his subsequent life in the army, from which he retired in 1971.
As a rebellious youth I used to challenge him about the paradox that his role involved. His rationale was that the men and women, and their families, to whom he ministered were as entitled to his ministry as anyone else. We never came to an agreement about all this stuff, but I did respect him for having been willing to put himself in harms way in undertaking what he saw as his duty. I have his medals (he died in 2000) and he was mentioned in despatches twice, though he rarely spoke of his war experiences in any detail.
