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Secondary: Current Assemblies

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE

By James Lamont

Suitable for Key Stage 4/Key Stage 5

Aim

To look at the concept of World Peace Day.

Preparation and materials

Download pictures taken from news sites showing people suffering through war. Include some of UN peacekeeping forces.
You need a copy of ‘Nimrod’ by Vaughan Williams.

Assembly

We live in a world where peace is elusive. Despite the existence of peacemaking organizations, such as the United Nations, and a public dislike of war, the UN’s peacekeeping forces are currently deployed in 16 separate missions across the globe. Nations as diverse as Lebanon, Haiti, Cyprus and India host international forces, determined to control and extinguish local and sometimes widespread conflicts. Yet, for one day, on 21 September each year, a day-long ceasefire is called for, to remind the world of the value of peace and the difficulty in maintaining it.
Since 1981, the Peace Bell has been rung at UN headquarters in New York on this day. The bell is made from coins donated by children from across the globe. It was given to the UN as a gift from Japan, a country that turned its back on armed conflict after the Second World War and has emerged as one of the world’s strongest economies and a major international player. The bell is inscribed with the words ‘Long Live Absolute World Peace’.
World peace is a noble goal in the abstract, but is peace itself the real goal? Following the Second World War, after liberation from the Nazi threat, the citizens of the former Soviet Union found themselves living under a different kind of tyranny. Peace was achieved but at the price of the freedom of the people living under communism.
In 2004, the UN planned to release a set of stamps to commemorate World Peace Day. One of the winning designs was by Yang Chih-yuan, a student from Taiwan. Taiwan is an island nation off the coast of mainland China and is populated by Chinese people. However, it regards itself as a separate country, with its own government and cultural identity. Because China does not recognize Taiwan as a sovereign nation, it stopped the UN from producing the stamp.
There was, however, a happy ending. Following discussion at the UN, the stamp was released across the world. What this shows, though, is that, in our world, the demand for peace is often used as a mask to perpetuate injustice and the rule of the strong. Until the hungry are fed and the just rewarded, we will always live under the shadow of war. With one billion people in the world going hungry, the need for true peace has never been so vital, as peace without justice is just an extension of war.

Time for reflection

Play the music.

Show the pictures of people suffering.

Reflection

Peace, perfect peace …

Hope in despair

Light in the darkness

How long, Lord, how long?

Love, perfect love …

Joy in pain

Light in the darkness

How long, Lord, how long?