Image credit: taken from Peace Train Canada blogspot
“Train is a verb – if you want peace, train for peace.”
Peace Train Canada
How are we training for peace? In what ways are we equipping ourselves for the work of peace?
Arriving in Calgary, Alberta on Friday 23rd October, we shared the Fingerprint Labyrinth one last time, with a wonderfully ecumenical group at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church. After a delicious meal, and a time of sharing our hopes and plans for deeper peace and justice globally, we packed up the Labyrinth and handed it over to Associate Members David Sherwin and Marilou Reeve who drove it to join Peace Train Canada in Edmonton.
Rooted in the early twentieth century ‘peace trains’ across Europe in response to war, these radical, grass-roots movements for peace have grown globally. Travelling by train, gathering protesters as they move, these early peace trains gathered thousands of people, initially mostly women en route to parliament to petition and protest for peace. The early 1960s saw this movement flourish in Canada, where it is flourishing still.
Setting off from Vancouver on 22nd October, a team of peace campaigners boarded the regular Vancouver to Ottawa train. They will arrive in the state capital in late October. As the PTC organisers say: “The train carries passengers representing thousands of others working together to get peace back on track. They ride on a single track that unites this great land. The many cars of the train represent the hundreds of exemplary organizations, heading in the same direction and working in solidarity to promote and protect the basic elements of peace and justice.” (Peace Train Canada)
On arrival at the state capital, Peace Train Canada and others will host rallies and workshops, share in panel presentations and submit a call to the Canadian government to establish a Canadian Centre for Peace and Justice. To know that our Fingerprint Labyrinth, calling for the right to protest peacefully for peace with justice, will be on that train gladdens my heart. From there, the FL will head back to its Canadian home in Ontario, available as a tool for all across this nation who are working for justice and peace.
Back in 2022/23, the Iona Community offered through Place for Hope some initial awareness-raising training to our local Family Group and other volunteer leaders about how to work well with difference. As we call for peace with justice throughout the globe: in Gaza, in South Sudan, in Ukraine – in all the 62+ locations where there is war – we are stronger when we can say we are also working to support the growth of peace training and awareness in ourselves, in our communities and across civic society.
Maybe, inspired by Peace Train Canada, it is time to join in with Peace Trains globally once again.
Iona Community Canada
Iona Community Peace Common Concern Network
USA North East