OCCUPY PEACE!

In keeping with the spirit of Mother's Day which was created as a day of peace,

on Sunday, May 6, (the week before Mother's Day)

at The First Unitarian Church (170 Dundurn St. South, Hamilton)

you are invited to a PEACE VIGIL

We will send healing, loving energy to ALL in the Middle East

3:30 - 4:30pm

Regardless of faith connections, politcial affiliations, opinions, ALL ARE WELCOME

Together we will create a safe place for all to gather without debate, discussion, or description of the situation in the Middle East.

The complexity of the issues can be overwhelming and paralysing to groups who want to help to bring peace to all.

Simply "being together" is one way that members of Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths are making connections with one another.

Allowing peaceful energy to flow among people, can have an effect that is beyond rational explanation.

A growing body of evidence states that meditation and prayers for peace not only benefit individuals, but our communities and ultimately the whole world.

Some of this research, conducted by a group called the Intention Experiment, saw crime rates in Washington, D. C. one summer fall by 25%,

and injury and death rates drop dramatically for a period of time during the civil war in Sri Lanka.

This is a FREE event!

Sponsored by the Social Justice and World Outreach Committee of Hamilton Presbytery of the United Church of Canada

for more information, contact Linda Nash

michaelandlindanash@shaw.ca

Mother's Day Proclamation by Julia Ward Howe 1870

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts,
whether our baptism be that of water or of tears!
Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies.

Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.

Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.

From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says "Disarm, Disarm!

The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."