Peace on Earth Goodwill to all

Luke 2:14

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God. Matthew 5:9

Could it be that we are teetering on the brinkOf an outbreak of peace?Could it be that by embracing one anotherDeep peace could be known, Here and now?Where we work against the tyranny of warand delight in our humanity.Where suspicion and terrorAre replaced with trust and hope.Let us take the risk -To make peace with one anotherLive in peace with one anotherAnd be at peace with ourselves.

Anthea Cox

‘How does peace come about?

Through a system of political treaties?... Through the big banks, through money? Or through universal peaceful rearmament in order to guarantee peace? Through none of these, for the single reason that in all of them peace is confused with safety ... peace must be dared. It is the great venture. It can never be safe.’

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

MILITARISM

KILLS WITHOUT WAR…

Current global spending on HIV/AIDS, a disease that claims 3 million lives a year represents 3 days worth of military spending.

Source: United Nations Human Development Report 2005

Following the government’s decision to invest in a replacement to the Trident nuclear weapons system, we pray:

Forgiveour confidence in weapons of mass destruction,our reliance on the politics of fear.our dependence on the use and abuse of power.

Discoverconflicts resolved without resort to violence,barriers of hate torn downa common humanity

Learn ways that make for peace.

Graham Sparkes

They will hammer their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning-knives. Nations will never again go to war, never prepare for battle again.

Isaiah 2:4

Know this:We have not come into this world forthe sake of strife and division.Nor for hatred and envy,provocation or the shedding of blood.

We will not trade violence for violence,or hatred for hatred.

For we are come into this world to know God,in the love of stranger,the caring for neighbour,the compassion of community andthe struggle for justice.

Nigel Varndell, Christian Aid

Imagine…

Your life in pieces and your life with no peace.Being afraid to wake up and afraid to go to sleepFacing the constant threat and the ever present reality of abuseHaving nowhere to go and no one to tell.

In the silence, the sound of crying.A woman weeps for herself and her children.Pray for all whose home has become a prison,Pray for all who are abused and are trapped in self blame,Pray for all whose lives have been left numb by brutality,

May we discover the strength of survivors,and together break the silence,with voices of anger and compassion,with hearts of tenderness and peace.

Graham Sparkes

1 in 4 women experience domestic violence during their

lifetime.

Make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that I may not so much seekto be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Adapted from Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Inspire in me the ability 2live a life of peace through the people I meet remembering always the beauty diversity and fragility of this world. X John Cooper

Universal Prayer for Peace

Lead me from death to Life, from falsehood to Truth.

Lead me from despair to Hope, from fear to Trust.

Lead me from hate to Love, from war to Peace.

Let Peace fill our heart, our world, our universe.

Peace, peace, peace

Satish Kumar

The Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace 2001-2010 (DOV) is an initiative of the World Council of Churches.

It is a global movement that strives to strengthen existing efforts and networks for overcoming violence, as well as inspire the creation of new ones.

The annual focus for 2007 is Europe.

God weeps over God’s world, aching because of conflict in Darfur, in Beslan, in Harare, in Columbia, in Jerusalem, in Belfast.

God depends on you to use your influence on the powerful to use their power for justice, for peace, for compassion, for gentleness, for caring, for sharing. God - Emmanuel, God with us, with you - has no one but you to help God make this world hospitable to peace and justice.

God bless you.

Desmond Tutu Message delivered on 21 September, 2004, to mark the observance of

the International Day of Prayer for Peace.

© Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes 2006