United Kingdom:” “a candle for peace” “

People are speaking the language of ecumenism all over the British Isles this week, in the numerous religious services being organized in England, Scotland and Wales to celebrate the day for peace simultaneously with the Pope in Assisi. The main point of reference for this day of dialogue – with moments of common prayer, lectures and pilgrimages – is the organization for ecumenical dialogue “Churches Together”, which is present in every city in the United Kingdom. At Glasgow – a sign that Scotland is turning its back on centuries of the most violent religious conflict – Christian leaders organized an inter-faith pilgrimage through the city on 24 January. The pilgrimage route was punctuated with moments of prayer held in a Hindu temple, in a Sikh temple, in a mosque and in a synagogue. At each stopping place on the way the representatives of the Christian confessions, the leaders of religious sects, the Presbyterians of the Church of Scotland, the Methodists, the faithful of the Episcopal Church, those of the United Reformed Church and of the United Free Church, the members of the Salvation Army and the Catholics lit a candle and recited a brief prayer. “It’s our response to the Pope’s invitation to believers throughout the world to join together to pray”, explains Father Stephen Smyth, a Marist brother who represents the Catholic Church in the organization “Churches Together” in Glasgow, “For us Scottish Catholics, this event is the proof of a new dialogue that opened after Vatican Council II, when we began to recognize attitudes that prevented us from drawing close to faithful of other denominations. “Also extremely important in improving relations with other Christians – Father Smyth points out – has been the role played both by CAIRS, the agency of the Catholic Church responsible for interreligious relations, and ACTS, or ‘Action of Churches Together in Scotland’, the ecumenical body for promoting relations with other Christians”. “In our organization of the pilgrimage – Father Smyth also explained – we took great care to avoid any risk of syncretism. The faithful of the other religions recited a prayer to which we Christians replied with the words of St. Francis: ‘God, make me an instrument of your peace’. It’s the first time in our history that we have participated in so important an ecumenical and interreligious event, the point of arrival of a journey of dialogue lasting thirty years. What inspired us were the words pronounced by the Pope in his Message for the Day of peace: genuine religious faith is an inexhaustible source of reciprocal respect and harmony, the most important antidote to violence and conflict”. The Our Father and the prayer of St. Francis, together with the reading from the Gospel, were also at the centre of a vigil for peace held on the evening of 23 January in the Catholic church of Saint Joseph in Bradford, a city in northern England where a large percentage of the population is of Asian origin and Moslem religion. The invitation to participate in the event was extended to each religious denomination. On the same day at Northampton, to the north of London, representatives of the Christian churches and the other religious denominations, Jews, Moslems, Hindus and Buddhists, gathered together in the Catholic cathedral to pray for peace. The vigil was officiated by the bishop, Msgr. Kevin McDonald. In his homily the bishop stressed the contribution that the various religions can make to a genuine peace process. A candle was lit as a symbol of hope that people of different religious faiths can overcome violence and evil. On the morning of 24 January the Catholics of London, inspired by the Pope’s example, gathered in the Maria Assumpta Centre in Kensington Square, in West London, to pray for peace. This moment of silence and prayer in London was also characterized by the lighting of many candles for peace. The celebration, in which the representatives of the most widespread religions in the United Kingdom participated, was led by the auxiliary bishop of Westminster, James O’ Brien, representing Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor, primate of England and Wales, who had gone to Assisi together with the Pope.