Peace Vigil

On Saturday 23rd September I joined tens of thousands of people in Manchester, as I went on my first peace march, organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Stop The War Coalition. Prior to the march, Quakers held an hour long silent vigil on the steps of the Mount Street Meeting House. It was a wonderful and powerful experience. Here are some photos:

the beginning of the vigil

the transformative power of silence

gathered together in stillness

witness to peace

The Quaker Banner

This was the beautiful Quaker banner
that had been made by Manchester Friends.

It is wonderful that this picture has been used for the
front cover for this week's issue of The Friend
(Click to enlarge)

Love Is Here

A Friend from my Quaker Meeting in Telford also participated in the peace march, and accompanied the groups supporting refugees and asylum seekers. She told me that one of the asylum seekers had made a banner that read:

LOVE IS HERE

Manchester Peace March

On Saturday 23rd September I joined tens of thousands of people
in Manchester, as I went on my first peace march.

assembling in Albert Square

the march begins: making our way through Albert Square

Quakers on the move

a river of people
(click to enlarge)

voices to be heard

percussion as protest: large groups of people
sat down and played instruments

a simple message

moving through the Manchester streets

rainbow of banners in the sunlight

For more photos please feel free to check out my set on flickr

The Die - In

The most moving and poignant part of the Peace March came when the people leading the march met up with those at the back - which meant that we had formed a circle around central Manchester.

At this point everbody sat or lied down.



It was called the "Die - In".


Tens of thousands of people joined together in a collective and encircling act of passivity, peace and non-violence as a testimony for the tens of thousands of people killed by war.


We played dead in memory of the real dead.

In the late summer sun, the hard tarmac had a latent warmth to it as for a couple of minutes i lay with my head on my ruck sack. It brought into focus how this symbolism was one way of trying to give voice to the many who have been silenced and who have no voice. And my mind turned to the people actively embodying and working for peace in the world. People, like Tom Fox, the Quaker and member of the Christian Peacemaker Team, who was taken hostage and killed in Iraq, who gave his life for peace. I read that Tom Fox had once quoted this beautiful prayer by the medieval mystic Abbess Hildegard von Bingen:

"Holy Spirit, giving life to all beings, moving all creatures, root of all things, washing them clean, wiping out their mistakes, healing their wounds, you are our true life, luminous, wonderful, awakening the heart from its ancient sleep."

In participating in my first peace march I felt a sense of re-awakening.

I felt a personal re-awakening to the need to bear witness to the peace testimony.

I also felt a re-awakening to the meaning of 'worship'. Both the peace vigil, the march and the die-in were for me a form of worship, just like silent expectant waiting in a meeting-house. It was the coming together of people to be present to one another, and to collectively affirm and bear witness to each other's truths. We all had different narratives, biographies, stories and perspectives, but ultimately we came together under the single banner of 'PEACE'.

Peace Train

After the Peace March we returned to Manchester Piccadilly Station and waited for a train home. Just before our train was due in, the specially chartered Peace Train departed from an adjoining platform, so we went and waved them off.

Here are 3 amazing live versions of "Peace Train"
by Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens)

"Now I've been happy lately,
thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be,
something good has begun

Oh I've been smiling lately,
dreaming about the world as One
And I believe it could be,
some day it's going to come

Cause out on the edge of darkness,
there rides a Peace Train
Oh peace train take this country,
come take me home again

Now I've been smiling lately,
thinking about the good things to come
And I believe it could be,
something good has begun

Oh Peace Train sounding louder
Glide on the Peace Train
Come on now Peace Train
Yes, Peace Train holy roller

Everyone jump upon the Peace Train
Come on now Peace Train

Get your bags together,
go bring your good Friends too
Cause it's getting nearer,
it soon will be with you

Now come and join the living,
it's not so far from you
And it's getting nearer,
soon it will all be true

Now I've been crying lately,
thinking about the world as it is
Why must we go on hating?
why can't we live in bliss?

Cause out on the edge of darkness,
there rides a Peace Train
Oh Peace Train take this country,
come take me home again"

Come on everyone - climb aboard the Peace Train

Let Us Then Try What Love Will Do

"We are called to live 'in the virtue of that life and power that takes away the occasion of all wars'. Do you faithfully maintain our testimony that war and the preparation for war are inconsistent with the spirit of Christ? Search out whatever in your own way of life may contain the seeds of war. Stand firm in our testimony, even when others commit or prepare to commit acts of violence, yet always remember that they too are children of God."

Advices & Queries 31


"A good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we ever do evil, that good may come of it ... It is as great presumption to send our passions upon God's errands, as it is to palliate them with God's name... We are too ready to retaliate, rather than forgive, or gain by love and information. And yet we could hurt no man that we believe loves us. Let us then try what Love will do: for if men did once see we love them, we should soon find they would not harm us. Force may subdue, but Love gains: and he that forgives first, wins the laurel."

William Penn, 1693, from QFP 24.03

"Our principle is, and our practices have always been, to seek peace, and ensue it, and to follow after righteousness and the knowledge of God, seeking the good and welfare, and doing that which tends to the peace of all. All bloody principles and practices we do utterly deny, with all outward wars, and strife, and fightings with outward weapons, for any end, or under any pretence whatsoever, and this is our testimony to the whole world. That spirit of Christ by which we are guided is not changeable, so as once to command us from a thing as evil, and again to move unto it; and we do certainly know, and so testify to the world, that the spirit of Christ which leads us into all Truth will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world.

And as for the kingdoms of this world, we cannot covet them, much less can we fight for them, but we do earnestly desire and wait, that by the word of God's power and its effectual operation in the hearts of men the kingdoms of this world may become the kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ, that he might rule and reign in men by his spirit and truth, that thereby all people, out of all different judgments and professions might be brought into love and unity with God and one with another, and that they might all come to witness the prophet's words, who said, 'Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more'. (Is 2:4; Mic 4:3)"

Declaration by Quakers to Charles II, 1660, from QFP 24.04