Message from the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (PaCET) for Sunday Meeting 18th August 2024

Dear Friends,

Last week, being aware that August 6th was Hiroshima Day, we went to the Peace Garden which local Friends had helped establish in Seaford. It has one of those square posts in it with “May peace prevail on earth” on it in four different languages, one of thousands of such Peace Poles around the world – maybe we should have one in our Meeting House garden.

We appreciated the quiet peaceful atmosphere In the Garden as we recalled a visit we were able to make some years ago to the Peace Park in Hiroshima. We were visiting Japanese Friends and they made contacts for us so we could meet local peace activists. The Park is in the middle of the rebuilt city near where the first atomic bomb fell. The iron skeleton of one domed building is all that remains. The Peace Park is full of memorials, recognizing those who died and expressing hopes for a more peaceful world. Sculptures reach upward in aspiration, as does one at the centre of the Seaford Peace Garden.

Origami paper cranes have become a world-wide symbol of hopes for peace. They are tricky to make – like peace. We were garlanded in them by those who met us at the station. In the Park they colourfully surround a memorial to Sadako, a girl who spent hours making paper cranes before dying from the effects of the bomb. It was the focal point for visiting school groups, as we observed. The memorial has Sadako holding high a crane in hope.

Our guide that day was a survivor of the bomb – she had been just far enough away from the epicentre to escape the full impact but was left with a burnt scarred face. After the war she had had the chance to be taken to America for restoration surgery to remedy as far as possible the damage done to her. It was really moving to hear her talk of staying in Pendle Hill, the Quaker educational centre, where a young American came to her and apologised for America’s dropping of the atomic bomb – the first time anyone had said that to her, she said. In due course, that had led her to want to share her experiences and hopes for peace with others who came to visit Hiroshima, by the time we met despite a persistent cough. She must have influenced so many. Saying sorry can have an impact we may never know.

In our thoughts, prayers and actions may we join with all those working to make peace on earth prevail.

Chris and Christina

on behalf of the Pastoral Care and Eldership Team (David Hitchin, Chris Lawson, Tim Pitt-Payne, Caroline Pybus, Theresa Samms and Nancy Wall)