Continuing to Work for Peace

A message from a consultation for peace educators organized by the World Council of Churches which met in Belfast 18-24 June 2001

We are peace educators from many different countries all over the world. We share the pain and sadness that are born from violence and the struggle of your people. Like a glimmer of light in the darkness, God has urged us to put our hearts, our hands and our lives to the task of constructing peace. We work in Peace Education because we love humanity and want to promote human rights and responsibilities irrespective of flags, nationalities, race or boundaries.

For all of these reasons, we cannot be indifferent towards the pain that is being lived in such a beautiful land like Northern Ireland. We empathize with your suffering because we love you all and, because your children are just like our own, we feel for them too, like our own.

We, as peace educators from countries that share the pain, the injustice and the complexities of violence, would like to embrace with great tenderness each and every one of you and say that, today, you are deep in our hearts.

We are certain that every small act or gesture of reconciliation between divided communities is a giant step towards finding peace. Since hope is not just waiting passively for something to happen but in fact a dynamic path towards what we dream about, we, as educators for peace from all over the world, support you in your efforts for peace building. We will continue our work so that together we can create and celebrate peace for our children and our children’s children.