One of the light projections on Friends House. Photo: By Michael Preston for BYM.
Friends House lit up for Remembrance
‘The number of civilian deaths worldwide jumped by forty per cent in 2024 and has been increasing for three years running, due to the violence in Gaza, Ukraine and other war zones worldwide'
Friends House was illuminated with a light projection last weekend to remember civilians killed in war in 2024.
The garden event followed this year’s National Alternative Remembrance Ceremony, organised by the Peace Pledge Union (PPU) in London’s Tavistock Square. The actor Mark Rylance spoke at the ceremony, which this year focused on ‘the catastrophic loss of life in wars over the past year’.
‘The number of civilian deaths worldwide jumped by forty per cent in 2024 and has been increasing for three years running, due to the violence in Gaza, Ukraine and other war zones worldwide,’ said PPU. ‘The death toll is especially acute among children, who are being killed in unprecedented numbers, according to UN Human Rights.’
Mark Rylance, a PPU member, said that Remembrance Sunday should serve as a moment to ‘refocus our every effort to avert war’. He said that civilians should be acknowledged alongside members of the armed forces, stating that it is ‘an offence not to remember their suffering’.
The events coincided with the launch of ‘Memorial 2025’, a new online memorial project by Every Casualty Counts (ECC), telling the stories of over one hundred civilians killed in war over the past year. Friends attended, including Quaker Peace & Social Witness staff.
