Friends throughout the UK mark Armistice Day and reaffirm peace
Armistice Day marked by Quakers around the country
Quakers up and down the country marked the centenary of the end of world war one with a range of peace-affirming vigils and events. From street theatre to art work, Friends commemorated the Armistice while reaffirming their commitment to a more peaceful world. Huddersfield Quakers said they were upholding local Friend Ian Bray as he walked under the banner ‘Never Again’ with Veterans for Peace members and military veterans from around the world to a ceremony of remembrance at the Cenotaph in London.
Bradford Friends laid wreaths at a ‘Songs for Peace’ service as three local choirs sang, while Central England Quakers held an open-air Meeting for Worship in the grounds of St Philips Cathedral in Birmingham. The service also displayed three peace poppy mosaics by Quaker artist Caroline Jariwala.
Julie Farrell, from Exeter Meeting, told the Friend: ‘Exeter Quakers commissioned Crediton Arts Centre to write, produce and perform a fifteen-minute play about the Armistice. They performed it three times on 10 November in the busy shopping centre in Exeter. It was a moving story and many people wept. In the evening the players gave another performance at Crediton Arts Centre as part of an evening of remembrance.’ The street theatre performance began with ten minutes of worship led by Devon Area Meeting.
Several Meetings have been using the anniversary as an opportunity to open up debate about how we can create a more peaceful world. ‘It is always galling when the government talks about the horrors of war while exposing more people to it,’ said Oliver Robertson, from the First World War Peace Forum. ‘War is always a choice, and it’s a choice to shut down other means of resolving conflict.’
Swindon Friends hosted an hour-long service at their Meeting house on 4 November where they distributed white poppies. Clerk Cherry Lewis told the Swindon Advertiser: ‘We host our alternative service the week before so that there’s no clash. It’s a quiet occasion but this year we want to get more people involved… We’re very inclusive and recognise that people of faith and of no faith have more in common than of difference.’
Friends also gathered at an alternative remembrance ceremony in Tavistock Square in London, where participants laid wreaths at the conscientious objectors’ stone and recited a pledge to work for peace. Acclaimed actor and playwright Michael Mears, author of the play This Evil Thing, contributed to the service, which was organised by eleven peace groups. One, the Peace Pledge Union (PPU), tweeted: ‘Today, government ministers will lay wreaths and talk of remembering the war dead. Tomorrow, they’ll still be selling weapons, spending billions on armed force and cutting benefits on which veterans and others rely.’
The ceremony was followed by a ‘peace festival’ in nearby Friends House, which on 9 November ran a Peace Education Network event called INSPIRE, including 800 children. Isabel Cartwright, peace education programme manager at Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM), said it was about ‘building a big movement for peace’.
Other Meetings will continue marking the event this week. On 18 November, Edinburgh Meeting will host a performance of Home Front/Front Line by award-winning poet Chrys Salt, a dialogue in letters and poetry between Chrys, a pacifist mother, and her soldier son.
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