Category: Peace

On 19 September the Emissaries of Divine Light hosted a Peace work shop at their sanctuary in Brommersvlei Road. I was very honoured to be the facilitator. We looked at Peace, what it means and how one would define it. Then we looked at how one would explain that concept to any person who has never experienced it. We had no answers for that, but we did end the evening with the realisation of how easy it is to give up and become disillusioned and how important it is to resist that urge. Once we have the privilege of knowing what peace is, we have a responsibility to hold that vision for those who have not yet managed to embrace that experience. That’s how the energetic field is both anchored and expanded.

Thank you Howard Goodman of the Emissaries for making it happen, we’d love to do that again.

Berry Behr

The turnout may not have been what we hoped for, but the message certainly was. On 20 September we celebrated International Day of Peace a little early with our Silent Prayer Peace March from Kaizergracht to Parliament where we handedover a memorandum to Mr Charles Ford of the Office of the State President.

The timing was perfect as the Honorable President was in New York for the IDP Summit commemorating the 100th birthday of Nelson Mandela. The theme was The Right To Peace, and it spoke right into our memorandum as we reminded the State President of the human rights enshrined in our constitution – the rights to Freedom, Dignity and Security, all of which are not the lived experience of the majority of our people.

We urged the Government to take action to secure these human rights in our communities, and we asked for engagement that would re-motivate the law enforcement agencies to effectively do their jobs. We cited unequal distribution of resources as just one of the problems that could be easily rectified, and we quoted the Golden Rule that flows through all faiths as the unifying factor in our alliance as Faith Leaders as we work to restore the moral compass and reassure the people and the President that Spiritual Leadership has an important role to play in bringing back law and order and a sense of stability to our communities.

The City of Cape Town hosted an Interfaith blessing of the Newlands Springwater at the new collection point on Tuesday the 22nd May. What a special moment! The rains were included in the ceremony, and the Water and Sanitation Department shared some interesting background to their very challenging task. This beautiful event included prayers and blessings from many traditions including Baha’i, Buddhism, Hindu, Islam, Judaism, Catholic, Unitarian, Anglican, AfricanTraditional and Quaker.