As the sun rises on Sunday, May 22, Christians and churches across the world are being encouraged by the World Council of Churches (WCC) to celebrate God’s peace in their worship services, to hold a Peace Sunday dawn vigil, to plant a tree as an act of peace or to use social media to share prayers for peace with Christians around the world.
“Each tree will become the lasting symbol of our united efforts to bring the peace of Christ to our suffering world,” says the Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, the WCC general secretary. “We hope that people will feel inspired to use social media like Twitter or Facebook to share pictures, peace prayers and hopes for a just peace in their own language.”
The World Sunday for Peace is part of the WCC’s International Ecumenical Peace Convocation (IEPC) which will take place May 17-25 in Kingston, Jamaica and marks the culmination of the “Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace.”
More than a thousand people from around the world will be meeting in Kingston to celebrate the promise of a just peace. Churches in the Caribbean have prepared a prayer for peace for churches throughout the world to use on the Sunday for Peace.
Hymns, texts and ideas that congregations can use to prepare for their celebration of the peace Sunday are available at the Overcoming Violence website.
“It can be quite a challenge to write a prayer in just 140 keystrokes on Twitter, but such small steps are part of our journey to building a just peace,” said Tveit. “It’s our hope that the worldwide prayer for peace on May 22 will help build bridges of just peace.”