Quakers from Sheringham Meeting celebrated U.N. International Peace Day this year on September 19th with a silent vigil in the High Street in the town with a banner created for the day together with Quaker posters that have been subsequently been accepted into to the Muckleburgh Military Collection, as part of their wartime poster display.
Stemming from the idea of a banner sending out the message that peace was not simply the absence of war, but something that needed to originate in the heart and mind of every human being, it became a project for lockdown for members of the meeting to create individual squares, sewn, knitted, painted or written on to share where we’d found inner peace in these difficult months. It has become a record of this particular time as well as an expression of our peace testimony. Squares were made by friends with an age spectrum from 4 to 86, with a wonderfully colourful range of subjects, skills and materials.
A vigil of eight of us held a Meeting for Worship for 30 minutes. Although no-one came to look closely at our display, because we were obviously socially distancing from one another as well as the public. However, passers-by could see a large message above our heads proclaiming U.N. International Peace Day. Several people gave us the thumbs up and lovely smiles.
