Exeter Quakers hold vigil for peace

‘As Quakers we are strongly committed to nonviolent solutions to conflict and do not support the use of force by any side.'

Exeter Quakers held a ‘strictly silent’ vigil last week for peace.

The event on 2 November at the Exeter Peace Tree welcomed ‘people from all faiths and none, supporters of all groups, but without their flags or banners’.

Laura Conyngham, from Exeter Meeting, said, before the event: ‘We shall be standing in solidarity with all those who have been killed or are suffering as a result of war or armed conflict.

‘As Quakers we are strongly committed to nonviolent solutions to conflict and do not support the use of force by any side.

‘For Gaza, we call for a ceasefire and access to aid for the thousands of civilians caught up in the fighting and for negotiations for the return of Israeli hostages.’

Although the ‘impetus’ was ‘the war in the Middle East between Gaza and Israel’, said the Friends, ‘we will also have in our minds all victims of current wars and conflicts, in the war between Ukraine and Russia and in the conflict in the Sudan’.

This Sunday, on 11 November, Exeter Quakers will lay a wreath of white poppies at the invitation of Exeter City Council for the seventh consecutive year at their Remembrance Day Service in Northernhay Gardens. The centrepiece of the wreath will read: ‘In remembrance of all victims of war, past and present.’

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