TEXAS
, USA
(2004
World Peace Prayer Society Report)
Spring
church to host service at peace pole Tuesday
By: BRITTANIE HOOFARD, Villager staff
09/15/2004
A local church is hoping to draw attention to world
peace with a ceremony honoring an international custom sanctioned
by the United Nations more than 20 years ago.
Creative Life Spiritual Center,
at 5326 Spring Stuebner Road in Spring, will host services at 7 p.m.
Sept. 21 to honor the U.N. International Day of Peace. The day is
meant to allow people worldwide to make a commitment to peace.
At the ceremony, the church will also dedicate
a peace pole.
"That is a visible reminder, too, that we
make a commitment to peace," said Tomi Phillips, a member of
the church who is spearheading the celebration.
According to the event's international Web site,
www.internationaldayofpeace.org, the event was established by the
United Nations in 1981 to coincide with the opening of the General
Assembly on the first Tuesday of September in 1982. Twenty years later,
the U.N. passed a resolution setting Sept. 21 as the permanent date
for the annual event.
Among other things, the purpose of the event is
for the U.N. and its member states to "promote the ideals of
peace and to give positive evidence of their commitment to peace in
all viable ways," according to the Web site. "The International
Day of Peace should be devoted to commemorating and strengthening
the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples."
Along with these resolutions, the U.N. has called
for an international ceasefire in all nations on this day. According
to the Web site, Zambia was the first nation to answer to the U.N.'s
call for a ceasefire.
Last year, Peace Day events took place in 98 countries.
This year, events are taking place in New York, Vermont, Africa, Australia,
Switzerland, Spain, New Jersey, Utah, Canada and Pennsylvania, to
name a few.
Creative Life, who is affiliated with the United
Church of Religious Science, will celebrate the day with a nonpolitical
candlelight vigil followed by the dedication of the peace pole. Music
and the reading of prayers and poems will follow, Phillips said. Anyone
who attends is welcome to read something they wish to bring.
The peace pole project was started by the World
Peace Prayer Society, who sells the poles that state "May Peace
Prevail on Earth" in several languages. Some peace poles have
four or six sides, but Creative Life's peace pole will have eight
sides. One language is always the native language of the country where
the pole is. In addition, Creative Life's peace pole will feature
Japanese, which Phillips included because of the nuclear bombings
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Farsi, and Cherokee, which she included
because of the Trail of Tears.
According to the World Peace Prayer Society's Web
site, www.worldpeace.org, there are more than 250,000 peace poles
across the world, at churches, school and city centers in 180 countries.
There are peace poles at the pyramids in Gaza, Egypt and at the magnetic
north pole in Canada, Phillips said. There are peace poles in Sarajevo
and on the Allenby Bridge that connects Israel and Jordan.
"It's been a really exciting and fun thing
to work on," Phillips said. "It's been fun choosing the
music for the event."
She said the ceremony will commence with "Imagine"
by John Lennon, and will feature other folk songs as well and religious
hymns.
Part of the goal of the event is to show people
who don't support any war that they are not alone in their beliefs.
"I think we're going to be surprised by the
number of people who show up," she said. "People are not
alone. It's as Gandhi said, 'Eye for an eye just leaves everyone blind.'"
Brittanie Hoofard may be reached via e-mail at
bhoofard@mail.hcnonline.net.
©Houston
Community Newspapers Online 2004
Creative Life is a spiritual community in suburban Houston,
Texas, teaching and living the Science of Mind, a transformational
path first articulated by the American philosopher Ernest Shurtleff
Holmes.
2004
World Peace Prayer Society Compilation
PICTORAL
ARCHIVE OF PREVIOUS PEACE DAY EVENTS
May
Peace Prevail
On Earth
