Eye - 21 June 2013

From peace to quiet things

Peace at Pales

‘May peace prevail on earth’. These words adorn a new Peace Pole at Pales Meeting House. Sixty Friends, peace activists and singers recently gathered together in a dedication ceremony for the Pole, which stands beside the Meeting’s meditation pool.

Angela Coleridge, an attender at Llandrindod and Pales Meeting, wrote to give us a flavour of the day: ‘From within the time-worn walls of the Pales Meeting house at Llandegley came the voices of its peace choir with the song “Pace”. It was the early afternoon of 18 May 2013 and a bank of cloud had taken the warmth away from the day. The choir, carrying its song of peace, moved slowly away from the Meeting house, along the path to the meditation pool.

‘The words for peace moved with it: “pace”… “heddwch”… “shanti”… “salaam”… “shalom”… “haywa”.

‘The Peace Pole project has spread around the world. It was started in Japan in the wake of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and carries the words “May peace prevail on earth” on slim poles in four different languages. At Pales we have it in Welsh, English, Japanese and French. It is a statement of absolute commitment to peace and the process of peace.’

Angela reflected that ‘through the moments of stillness and reflection, through the words spoken and the words sung and through the laying of a pebble by each of us at the foot of the pole, there was a corporate and inward honouring of the pole and its purpose.’

God’s quiet things

Javan Thornton, from the Spiritual Explorers group for nine to eleven year olds, has written a beautiful reflection on an encounter he had on the way home from Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM):

‘As the train halted at the platform, I was still in high spirits after the meeting of so many Friends at BYM 2013. Trudging home in need of some rest, we came, quite by chance, across a small sign to a nature trail half way up the hill. It led us through the remains of Rayleigh castle, though little sign of its stones remain upon the surface of the earth.

‘Now it seems a hidden sanctuary for God’s quiet (and rather loud) things. We searched for the centre along the mud-riddled footpath. Persuading my mum to leave the well-worn track, we clambered up the steep grassy hill.

‘As I raced ahead, I suddenly stopped in my tracks. Huddled in the ferns lay a large black bird staring at me. I watched it quivering, its black beady eyes blinking. We crouched low, respecting the space between us, and waited in the stillness. I scattered some crumbs from sandwiches. Suddenly, from behind us, a mallard duck and his wife came waddling, quacking impatiently and demanding his share. The pair passed on through the grass. A grey squirrel humbly inspected the remains but kept his distance and darted back down the hill.

‘How many creatures, including us, have hurried past and not noticed our friend? We had called RSPCA three times and stood desolately in the pouring rain for an hour but they did not arrive. My mum attempted, in vain, to pick up this injured crow in a towel. He squawked in terror and flapped his injured wing. He struggled free, only to bury himself further into the nettle undergrowth.

‘I felt we had shown little faith in his instinct for survival and betrayed his trust. We had somehow interfered in a life we did not understand. I went to sleep that night with silent prayers for the peace of an injured crow and for his safety from nocturnal dangers.’

Javan would like to thank the facilitators of the Children’s Programme at BYM 2013.

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