September 2013 Ritual: The World Needs Peacemakers
By Diann L. Neu
Circle of Peacemakers
We gather in a world at war. We come not to debate politics but to pray for peace, not to create military strategies but to open our hearts to the Spirit of Love and Justice and to be part of the force that creates peace. We gather to call forth peacemakers. (Light a candle)
We gather in the spirit of those who have died—may they rest in peace. We gather in the spirit of those who are making decisions, hopeful that our prayers will warm their hearts and open their minds to a moral creativity that will bring peace without bombing and killing. We gather in the spirit of the Divine who calls us to live in peace from generation to generation. We gather to call forth peacemakers. (Light a candle)
We gather because we must. We can’t keep from singing for peace. We can’t keep from praying for an end to violence and the beginning of a new day for our children’s children and for us. We gather linked in a special way to the people in Syria, praying for their safety, and hoping with them that this war will end. We gather mourning all who are killed in mass shootings. We gather to call forth peacemakers. (Light a candle)
Naming the Circle
Let us create a circle of peacemakers. When you hear the word “peacemakers,” who do you think of? Speak your name and say, “I am a peacemaker.” (Sharing)
Chant: “Give Peace a Chance,” John Lennon
All we are saying is give peace a chance…
Prayer
to birth many nations.
Chant: “Give Peace a Chance,” John Lennon
All we are saying is give peace a chance…
Calls for Peace
Women have long called for peace.
Listen to some of them.
“It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.”
–Eleanor Roosevelt, radio broadcast (1951), in Joseph P. Lash, Eleanor: The Years Alone (1972)
“You can’t shake hands with a clinched fist.”
–Indira Ghandi, in The Christian Science Monitor (1952)
“September 11 changed the world. Our deepest fears now haunt us. Yet I am convinced that military action will not prevent further acts of international terrorism against the United States.”
–Representative Barbara Lee (D-CA) who cast the only vote in opposition to S. J. Res. 23, Authorizing the Use of Military Force (2001)
“New horrors require new moral creativity. The tragic events of September 11 challenge people of good will, especially religious people, to find new ways of handling conflict and dealing with difference… Moral creativity requires the deepest resources of our various religious traditions and the most profound insights we can muster. It is a process that prioritizes careful listening over reactive speech.”
–Mary E. Hunt, “A Call for Moral Creativity,” WATERwheel (2001)
–Alice Walker, “The QPP,” Revolutionary Petunias (1971)
“Peace is when time doesn’t matter as it passes by.”
–Maria Schell, in Time (1958)
“Peace as a goal is an ideal which will not be contested by any government or nation, not even the most belligerent.”
–Aung San Suu Kyi, Nobel Peace Prize, (1991)
“The struggle to maintain peace is immeasurably more difficult than any military operation.”
“Indeed women have a place to fill and a stake to claim and a role to play in the world’s pursuit of peace. Indeed women have a right to … demand the feminine alternatives of listening and seeing and caring and relating and reaching out and feeling for the other that lead the world away from war.”
–Joan Chittister, OSB, Women & Power Conference, Omega Institute (2004)
“Acquire inner peace and a multitude will find their salvation near you.”
–Catherine de Hueck Doherty, Poustinia (1975)
Chant: “Dona Nobis Pacem,” 16th Century, Anonymous
Dona nobis pacem pacem, Dona nobis pacem.
Give to us peace…
Sharing and Candle Lighting
Take a candle, light it for world peace, and share your reflections, if you wish? (Sharing)
Litany of Peacemakers
Let us remember those women and men who, down through the ages, have worked for peace. Let us ask them to pray with us for peace at home and in the world.
Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed, pray for peace.
Sarah, Hagar, and Abraham, pray for peace.
Anne Frank and Rabbi Heschel, pray for peace.
Mary of Nazareth and Francis of Assisi, pray for peace.
Martin Luther King and Mary McLeod Bethune,
pray for peace.
Pope John XXIII and Dorothy Day, pray for peace.
Oscar Romero, Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel, Maura Clark, and Jean Donovan, pray for peace.
The Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers and Mahatma Ghandi, pray for peace.
Please share the names of other peacemakers,
pray for peace.
Chant: “Dona Nobis Pacem,” 16th Century, Anonymous
Dona nobis pacem pacem, Dona nobis pacem.
Give to us peace…
Greeting of Peace: The Prayer of St. Francis
Let us pray together:
All merciful God of Many Names,
Yahweh, Allah, Holy One, Wisdom-Sophia,
Make us instruments of your peace;
Where there is hatred, let us 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 we may not so much seek
To 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.
Let us exchange a greeting of peace with one another. (Peace greetings)
Sending Forth
Go forth committed to work for peace.
May peace be before us and behind us,
beside us and around us.
May peace be above us and below us,
inside us and throughout the world.
So that all generations may live in peace forever and ever. Amen. Blessed Be. Let It Be So.
© Diann L. Neu is co-founder and co-directior of WATER. A variation of this ritual is published in Peace Liturgies, WATERworks Press.
