Here are some snapshots of how BPFNA churches celebrated the 2009 International Day of Prayer for Peace:
From pastor Mindi Welton-Mitchell...
First Baptist Church in Framingham, MA was given a unique opportunity this year to be a stop on the way for the Peace Pilgrims, a group walking throughout New England to promote a conversation about peace (their website is http://peacewalk-newengland.org). When we decided to host the Peace Pilgrims for October 20th for lunch, we recognized an opportunity to discuss peace not only as a conversation but to engage peace in our worship life as well. We declared October "Peace Month." Each Sunday was centered on a different aspect of peace, moving from home to the world, and focused on the lectionary readings from Mark 10. We chose anthems for the choir and hymns and songs to sing with peace as the theme.
We began with Peace in the Home, focusing on teaching peace not only in our family life but creating an environment of welcome at our individual homes and in our church home, reconsidering our entertainment choices surrounding violence and ways we could be more welcoming of the strangers in our midst. It was also World Communion Sunday, so following worship with an International Potluck where everyone was invited to bring a dish from their home country, a dish their ancestors might have brought or a dish that represented their own corner of the U.S. We spoke of celebrating communion as a meal that began in a home, with friends as close as family, and that the church is also a home in which peace begins.
Our second Sunday was Peace in the Neighborhood, and we talked about how we rarely know who our neighbors are anymore, except when we have something to complain about them! We shared about two different organizations our church is involved in: MICAH (Metropolitan Interfaith Congregations Acting for Hope) is a community organization of local congregations coming together to be a voice in our community. The other organization is MIHN (Metrowest Interfaith Hospitality Network) which houses homeless families in congregations. Our church doesn't have the facility to offer temporary housing, but we partner with St. Paul's Episcopal Church in the neighboring town of Natick to provide meals the week that they host. Those who had volunteered spoke of how we immediately recognized that the homeless could be our next door neighbor, that the ones struggling to pay health care costs could live across the street from us, that often we as a church say we want to help those in need, but we often don't really know who those in need are. We need to learn how to reach out to our neighbors, and that sometimes the best way to find out who is in need is to simply ask.
Our third Sunday was Peace in the Land. We baptized a youth that Sunday and spoke of baptism taking place in the river Jordan, in lakes and rivers around the world, and the water used in our own baptistery as a precious resource from God. We spoke of coming into relationship with Christ as being a whole relationship with God, Others and Nature. We challenged our congregation as well as our youth to continue to lead us in better relationships with the environment around us. As a pastor, I was pleasantly surprised when two members of the congregation took it upon themselves to organize our recycling in our church kitchen, purchased a large recycling bin and have taken on the recycling ministry in the church, right when we were talking about our relationship with the land!
Our fourth Sunday was Peace in the World, and we spoke about celebrating diversity and recognizing inequality in our world on the basis of race/gender/sexual orientation/class/ability/age. We spoke about peace building in communities around the world in which education was offered to both boys and girls, especially in the villages of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Overall, we summarized this Sunday that peace was not simply the absence of war, but that peace was complete, whole relationship with God, Others and Nature, being in right-relationship with creation and Christ.
When we hosted the Peace Pilgrims on Tuesday October 20th, we provided a simple meal of sandwiches and soup. There were about six walkers and a few others that joined us by car, plus a few from the church, adding up to twenty persons. Following lunch, we sang a song together, and then the floor was opened. There was no agenda, simply a time to speak or ask questions of one another. The Peace Pilgrims were mainly from the same church in Connecticut that had a relationship with a church in Nicaragua, and three of the walkers were from Nicaragua and shared with us their work in a youth organization providing opportunities for youth in terms of music, karate, dance, and other activities, classes on gender differences and working with elders to bridge age differences. The talk turned to how peace could be controversial, and how one Baptist church had decided not to host them at the last minute, which baffled the rest of us!
However, the most moving moment for me was when Eric Swanfeldt, who helped organize this Peace Walk, spoke of being at a church in Nicaragua a few years ago, and the pastor had asked everyone in the church to come forward and trace their hand on a peace of paper as a pledge to do something for peace. Eric said he didn't want to be the only one not going forward, so he did, and the idea for the Peace Walk was born.
So on our last Sunday, at the end of the sermon, I invited folks from the congregation to do the same--to come forward and using a colored marker trace their hand on posterboard as a pledge for peace. We now have two beautiful posters of different colored hands layered over each other as a symbolic reminder of our pledge to build peace, and they are displayed at the front of our sanctuary throughout November and our Stewardship season to remind us that we have pledged to something more than ourselves.
We closed with our benediction that we sang throughout October: "Peace before us, peace behind us, peace beneath our feet. Peace within us, peace above us, let all around us be peace."
Throughout the month we had a "Peace Table" in our fellowship hall during October with resources from BPFNA and from the Peace Pilgrims, and we have left the table up by our Missions Bulletin Board so people can continue to receive information and resources on peacemaking.
I have already had a few conversations with folks who have said, "Pastor, now what? I don't know what to do to fulfill my pledge!" I have given them some ideas, but ultimately we are praying for the Holy Spirit to guide us in ways of living out God's shalom in our lives.
From pastor Paul Hayes of Noank Baptist Church, Noank, CT...
We had two events to recognize the IDPP. On September 21, we had an evening vigil that included liturgies (some from the BPFNA resource list), a couple of hymns, and an extended time of guided prayer. We used the BPFNA "The Intersection Between Personal & Social Transformation" as the wrap around for the worship order as an additional source of insight. We focused on peace within the community, region, country, and internationally. We had 15-20 participants.
The other thing we did was host a screening on September 26 of "Pray the Devil Back to Hell" -- the documentary on the Liberian women's movement (Christian and Muslim) that helped topple the Charles Taylor regime. This was open to the community at large. We had around 60 people in attendance for the viewing, with a discussion time afterward to help people process their impressions of the film. This went over very well and we've had several people following the event hear about it and borrow the DVD for their own viewing. Another church in the area has also chosen to view the film based on what we did.
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