22 May 2026 -Love in War and Peace

Opening prayer Loving God, we thank you for our time together this morning – we pray for all whose lives are affected, in any way, by war and conflict throughout the world.  We often struggle to make sense of these conflicts, and thank you for the grace to help create peaceful, quiet, times in our own lives and as part of this community.  We pray that your Holy Spirit will guide us each day in your way of peace, as we continue to pray for those whose lives are shattered by current disquiet and arguments in the world today.  We ask all this in Jesus’ name, Amen

Sharing        “After the war… After the war?”Such a familiar phrase — one I heard often in my childhood, when the memory of the Second World War was still close at hand.

It was with these words that I first began to reflect and pray about what we might contemplate together today. That was way back in mid-February, during a particularly unsettled time in the Middle East — before the escalations, and the retaliations that followed. At that point, I found myself wondering what war means to us… not only the wars we hear about across the world, but also the quieter, more hidden conflicts within ourselves.

But then, on the 28th of February, I was brought up short.I sensed I needed to pause… to truly pause… and begin again.” 

“After the war” no longer felt like the right place to begin - because the reality is …we are not “after” anything. Even if conflict pauses, it so often begins again.

And so, in that pause, another word began to surface – over a few days, maybe longer …very gently… very persistently.

And that word was Love.It seemed to settle quietly into my thoughts and into my heart.

It was around that time, I read two new poems - each beautiful in its own way. One was written by Marion Jadon in Jerusalem, and the other by Ana Lisa de Jong in New Zealand. Both were written very early in March, just a few days after the war with Iran in the Middle East began. Their words opened a different path of reflection… and led me here.

And … so, our theme became: “Love – in War and in Peace.”

Even amidst the most distressing news, there are moments — small, easily missed — where love still flickers into view. A gesture, a kindness, a sacrifice. These glimpses do not remove the suffering, but they remind us that something deeper endures – and they offer us hope.

Instead of a more ‘usual’ introduction to our stillness and silence, with Marion’s permission, I would like to share with you some thoughts which passed between her and me, as we messaged on Holy Saturday - Marion, my cousin, was in Jerusalem, making her way home from a medical appointment.She wrote: “After my appointments I am now in a lovely little oasis of a coffee / flower shop.  The eeriness continues, and distant explosions have just erupted, frightening a group of young children at a bus stop – a bus stop I passed to walk here .... their parents were trying to console them... The sky is an angry grey, despite the sunshine...weird, and giving a feeling of the good and the bad, both present together as if competing....”I responded, “Your words are so beautiful … yet profoundly sad … describing perfectly, for me, the pain/beauty of Jerusalem, and other places there … yes, that feeling of good and bad, always both present together as if competing”Marion and I pondered that Holy Saturday is often described as the day when God seems absent - a liminal space - when promises feel suspended.

Our image of “the good and the bad, both present together as if competing” captures that condition almost perfectly. Not resurrection yet, but not complete despair either. A kind of contested space.I imagine that different scenarios are already coming to mind for each of us …  and … as always in our time of quiet, stillness and silence … the space is for each of us to just ‘be’ - as we feel able … and as feels right for us. I offer a few thoughts you may wish to simply sit with:

“The good and the bad - both present together…”

“Pain and beauty - held together”

“The image of a small oasis in a troubled landscape”

“What, if anything, stirs within me as I reflect?”

“Can I stay present to the pain and the beauty together, without turning away from either?”You may wish to ponder some of this … or hold in mind the words of Marion and Ana Lisa… as you perhaps read their poems …or just to reflect on some of the other thoughts that follow …

And maybe - gently, without pressure, to consider:Where is love present …in times of war …in times of peace …and within our hearts and our lives?

Revd Judy Greenfield - 2026

Silence

Blessing

John O’Donohue

As the fever of day calms towards twilight - may all that is strained in us come to ease.

We pray for all who suffered violence today, may an unexpected serenity surprise them.

For those who risk their lives each day for peace, may their hearts glimpse providence at the heart of history.

That those who make riches from violence and war, might hear in their dreams the cries of the lost.

That we might see through our fear of each other, a new vision to heal our fatal attraction to aggression.

That those who enjoy the privilege of peace, might not forget their tormented brothers and sisters.

That the wolf might lie down with the lamb,

That our swords be beaten into ploughshares

And no hurt or harm be done anywhere along the holy mountain.

~ A Blessing for Peace – from Benedictus: To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

THOUGHTS TO PONDER

Lady in Black by Marion Jadon

Sometimes we receive a sense of light from the most unlikely people. Over the last couple of years I have got to know and admire a lady from a refugee camp near Bethlehem who has to beg for her living and frequented the streets of East Jerusalem. Since the current war broke out, she is no longer able to cross the closed military checkpoint in order to reach the most hopeful sources of help, and I am wondering how she is.  Her name, appropriately, is Fatima, which means "one who shines", and I have dedicated these words to her:

A Poem in Wartime – “Lady in Black”

She sits on busy downtown street   On roadside kerb, her bare, worn feet

Protruding from a long black gown -  as sunshine gifts her head with crown.

For what do you strive, dear Lady? Your poor comes across as my gold

As you sit on that hard stone pathway, I am watching your beauty unfold.

Her urgent voice sounds tuneful cry to many sorts of passers by

Who largely do not stop to pause, or listen to her desperate cause.

So what are you thinking dear lady? Your loss somehow feels like my gain!

You radiate joy and resilience despite all your struggles and pain.

With outstretched arm and pleading hand, she's hoping all will understand

Her need to find the daily bread for those at home, with mouths unfed.

So how do you feel, dear Lady? Your night has become my day.

The positive vibes from your spirit are chasing my darkness away.

And as she sits through tedious hours, her open palms resemble flowers,

Well nurtured from a rare, rich source, blossoming, despite life's course.

So where are you going, dear lady? Your fall has become my rise,

As you patiently wait for your offerings, there's a peaceful look in your eyes.

And as she blends within the crowds, her form's embraced by dancing clouds

Which transform dullness into light and make her gloomy clothes seem white.

So please keep on shining dear lady, and always live up to your name,

As you shed me bright rays of your goodness, I'll live by the glow of your flame.

Marion Jadon  - March 2026 – Jerusalem

Birthright by Ana Lisa de Jong

We are each needful of love.

But what if love were a mirrored globe,

and we are night insects held by the light’s draw.

What if love were a wind,

and we, caught in its throes, hair and skin, hardly know ourselves caressed.

What if love - with its round fulsome body of mountainous terrain, blue waters, grass plains—

what if love, loved us until we arrived at our rope’s end, grief’s frayed edge, and found ourselves uplifted.

We are each needful of another. But what if to be known were not luck, chance, opportunity.

But rather, birthright, children of creation and creator.

What if God, discreet like lovers undeclared,

were waiting around each corner, with a gift of sunshine or bloom.

We are each needful, as my grieving friends disclose.

And we are each saved by love’s intimations of devotion.

How, even in grieving, we do not grieve alone.

Love’s very nature, compassion and communion.

Oh love, bring your mirrored self so we may see ourselves imaged,

as a dark room projects light, makes beauty from the negatives.

Ana Lisa de Jong - Living Tree Poetry - March 2026

Easter Dawn – Malcolm Guite

He blesses every love which weeps and grieves, And now he blesses hers who stood and wept

And would not be consoled, or leave her love’s last touching place, but watched as low light crept

up from the east. A sound behind her stirs - a scatter of bright birdsong through the air.

She turns, but cannot focus through her tears, or recognise the Gardener standing there.

She hardly hears his gentle question ‘Why, Why are you weeping?’, or sees the play of light

that brightens as she chokes out her reply - ‘They took my love away, my day is night’

And then she hears her name, she hears Love say - the Word that turns her night, and ours, to Day.

Malcolm Guite

Hope whispers my name  - Jon Swales

Hope whispers my name and speaks to my soul: “Rest a while.I have a healing balm and will tend your wounds.”

I counter: “But have you seen the pain?

The poison runs deep. The beasts run wild.”

And hope speaks, addressing my wounded heart:

“Indeed, I know.

The night is darkest just before the dawn.

On cursed tree, through whip and nail,

the evil of empire & the sickness of sin sinned against me.

Alone in pain, I breathed my last.”

Downcast, I spoke: “The beast has won.

Hope lies silent in the grave. In the book of life, evil will have the last word.”

And hope rejoiced - laughed and sang a song of healing love:

“My beloved one, this is not true. The grave did not win.

I was raised to life.

Evil does not have the last word. Love itself has won.”

And I wept, and he wiped the tears from my face.

Hope embraced me in his love.

I beheld his face. We danced.

He is making all things new.

Rev’d Jon Swales, Easter 2023

A Celtic Creed  - The Iona Community

We believe in God above us, maker and sustainer of all life, of sun and moon, of water and earth, of male and female. We believe in God beside us, Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, born of a woman’ womb, servant of the poor. He was tortured and nailed to a tree. A man of sorrows, he died forsaken. He descended into the earth to the place of death. On the third day he rose from the tomb. He ascended into heaven, to be everywhere present, and his kingdom will come on earth. We believe in God within us, the Holy Spirit of Pentecostal fire, life-giving breath of the Church, Spirit of healing and forgiveness, source of resurrection and of eternal life. Amen.

Henri Nouwen

Through prayer we can carry in our heart all human pain and sorrow, all conflicts and agonies, all torture and war, all hunger, loneliness and misery, not because of some great psychological or emotional capacity, but because God's heart has become one with ours.As peacemakers, we must resist all the powers of war and destruction and proclaim that peace is the divine gift offered to all who affirm life. Resistance means saying 'No' to all the forces of death, wherever they may be.

Henri Nouwen 

Corrie ten Boom – some quotes from this well-loved writer“

If you look at the world, you'll be distressed. If you look within, you'll be depressed. If you look at God you'll be at rest.”

“Worrying is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength - carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.”

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”

“When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don't throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.”

“The wonderful thing about praying is that you leave a world of not being able to do something and enter God’s realm where everything is possible. He specializes in the impossible.Nothing is too great for His almighty power. Nothing is too small for His love.”

“You can never learn that Christ is all you need, until Christ is all you have.”“Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible.”

“Forgiveness … is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.”

“Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tyre?”

“If it’s dark everywhere, you can become so discouraged. You might doubt whether light still exists. But even if you can’t see the Lord, He sees you and me. Jesus said, 'And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age' (Matt. 28:20). When it’s necessary, He suddenly says, 'I’m still here!'”

John O’Donohue

As the fever of day calms towards twilight - may all that is strained in us come to ease.

We pray for all who suffered violence today, may an unexpected serenity surprise them.

For those who risk their lives each day for peace, may their hearts glimpse providence at the heart of history.

That those who make riches from violence and war, might hear in their dreams the cries of the lost.

That we might see through our fear of each other, a new vision to heal our fatal attraction to aggression.

That those who enjoy the privilege of peace, might not forget their tormented brothers and sisters.

That the wolf might lie down with the lamb,

That our swords be beaten into ploughshares

And no hurt or harm be done anywhere along the holy mountain.

~ A Blessing for Peace – from Benedictus: To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings

Jesus Shalom (Completeness): 

The peace Jesus gives is rooted in the Hebrew concept of shalom, meaning wholeness, completeness, and spiritual soundness

Rumi

You and I are like war and peace.

We do not meet… we do not separate..  we are both looking for the other.

And the truce between us is a bunch of dreams.. and music and poems that never sleep..

Rumi