Peace Day Service - Sept. 22

The Presbyterian Church and the Friends (Quaker) Meeting are jointly holding a service to commemorate the United Nations International Day of Peace on Saturday, September 22, 2012 at 2 pm. The program will be held at the Presbyterian Church, 314 Xenia Avenue in Yellow Springs.

Bill Meers, of the Dayton Peace Museum, will speak on this year’s, UN International Day of Peace theme, Sustainable Peace for a Sustainable Future.  Rev. Derrick Weston, minister of the Presbyterian Church and Director of the Coretta Scott King Center at Antioch College, will talk about the spirituality of peacemaking. Dr. Carl Hyde, an activist against the death penalty and a member of the Friends (Quaker) Meeting will focus his remarks on the injustice of the United States penal system.

The program also features the Peace Choir conducted by Cathy Roma, director of the acclaimed Muse Choir of Cincinnati.  Additionally, the Presbyterian Church choir will perform.  Refreshments and conversation in Westminster Hall will follow the program.

Since its inception in 1981, Peace Day has grown to include millions of people in all parts of the world commemorating this day.

In June, on the eve of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General wrote:

The International Day of Peace, marked every year on 21 September, gives us all a chance to reflect on the unconscionable toll — moral, physical, material — wrought by war. Those costs are borne not only by us today, but by future generations as well.

That is why this year’s theme is “Sustainable Peace for a Sustainable Future.” It highlights the fact that we cannot possibly think about building a sustainable future if there is no sustainable peace. Armed conflicts attack the very pillars of sustainable development, robbing people of the opportunity to develop, to create jobs, to safeguard the environment, to fight poverty, to reduce the risk from disasters, to advance social equity and to ensure that everyone has enough to eat.

We want a future where natural resources are protected and valued rather than used to finance wars, where children can be educated at school and not recruited into armies, where economic and social inequalities are resolved through dialogue instead of violence.

If we are to build such a future, we must all play our individual part. I urge everyone to think about how they can contribute.
 
For more information call Rev. Derrick Weston, Presbyterian Church minister, 937-767-7751, or Steve Roberts, Yellow Springs Friends (Quaker) Meeting Peace and Social Justice Committee Clerk, 937-825-5318 or 937-233-5577.