Last night I was lucky enough to have been invited to attend the inaugural City of Peace lecture at Newcastle’s Civic Centre.

Just to remind you what is City of Peace, its an intuitive to:-

• Encourage communities, individuals and organisations in Newcastle upon Tyne to get to know each other better
• Safegaurd vulnerable people and groups and give support where needed
• Bring about greater integration, but also respect for difference
• Reduce inequalities and promote social justice
• Tackle prejudice, create a positive and safe environment, reduce tensions and promote good citizenship.

Some very noble aims and as a city we doing our best to move closer to them every day.

Anyway back to the lecture. We were blessed to have the Archbishop of York, the Most Reverend John Sentamu, basically the head of the Church of England in the North. His lecture was on the theme of “Gracious Magnanimity versus Tolerance”, a most thought-provoking topic.

The Archbishop was introduced by the Lord Mayor, and was given the honour of being named an honorary Geordie, to which he could only say “Whey-Aye Man”.

He started by explaining how tolerance is seen as part of what makes Britain, Britain, but he argued that tolerance was actually a negative quality, resulting in narrow-mindedness and oppression.

He used the example of brothels in France which are referred to as ‘maisons de tolérance’or Houses of tolerance. He stated his belief that tolerance is putting up with something that is different and that we don’t particullarily like, and instead argued that we should gravitate more towards the quality of Gracious Magnanimity, or meeting people halfway as he put it. He said that:-

“We are more likely to hear the language of people asserting their rights, waving the terms of the contract under someone’s nose and getting in first. Yet it is these positive virtues of gracious magnanimity which I believe could help us to transform our country today.

Aristotle also discussed gracious-magnanimity in the Nicomachean Ethics. He says that gracious-magnanimity (epieikeia) is that which is just and sometimes that which is better than justice (Eth. Nic. V. 10.6).

It corrects the law when the law is deficient because of its generality. And he compares the person who is graciously magnanimous (epieikes) with the person who is immoderate (akribodikaios.)

The person who is immoderate is the person who stands up for the last title deeds of their legal rights; but the person who is graciously magnanimous knows that there are times when a thing may be legally completely justified and yet morally completely wrong.

A person has the quality of gracious-magnanimity if they know when not to apply the strict letter of the law, when to relax justice and introduce mercy.

Similarly I would say, a graciously-magnanimous Church has a responsibility to both affirm moral standards and to ensure that its rules don’t seem rigorous to the point of inhumanity. That should also be true of all civic authorities. That should be true of all of us.”

He then moved on to an interesting and moving example of this quality from South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

“At the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa a woman was at the hearing about her son’s murder. The police officer who had ordered the brutal killing was there, shamefacedly hearing read out the details of what he and his colleagues had done. At the end the room was quiet. The chair of the commission, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, asked the woman if she had anything to say to the man who had killed her son.

She responded:

“I am very full of sorrow. So I am asking you now – come with me to the place where he died, pick up in your hands some of the dust of the place where his body lay, and feel in your soul what it is to have lost so much. And then I will ask you one thing more. When you have felt my sadness, I want you to do this. I have so much love, and without my son, that love has nowhere to go. So I am asking you – from now on, you be my son, and I will love you in his place.”

She went on to say –

“I can say this – I can only do this, because Jesus loved me and gave himself up for me.””

I have to say that story was very touching and extremely powerful, the room drew a gasp at this and several members of the audience, including the Lord Mayor were brought to tears.

Its a nice sentiment and a fantastic quality and one I think is worth striving towards. He finished by wishing us luck in the City of Peace inituative and that Newcastle United will flourish, which recived a massive round of applause!

My prayer for Newcastle in the months and years ahead is that you may hold fast to this vision, that you work with humility, good humour and imagination together to build-up your common life. May God bless you, Newcastle and may the fortunes of Newcastle United ever flourish.

I was also fortunate enough to meet him just prior to the lecture, and I have to say his is a charming chap, and I found him to have some extremely interesting insights to the way the UK and indeed the world is today.

I was most interested by his comments, which he later expanded upon in his lecture, about groups such as the National Secular Society, who expect those of us who hold religious views to keep them entirely private. It fits in my thoughts on hats, which I will explain another day. Anyway he said that how can we expect people to simply put their religious beliefs away in a box when they are in the public domain. The truth of the matter is that someone’s religious beliefs is a core part of their identity and without it, that person loses something.

And the experience of the religious, dealing with organisations like the National Secular Society, are exactly what Gracious Magnanimity can help us to address. We can meet half way and allow us all to happily get along and strive towards making not only Newcastle a City of Peace, but the whole Earth a Planet of Peace.

Anyway you can read his lecture here.

God Bless

Michael

These past few weeks have seen the deaths of the last British Tommy’s to have fought in the Trenches on the Western Front of World War I. Yesterday Harry Patch the last survivor was buried with full military honours as Britain mourned the loss of this generation, and the sacrifices they made for us.

But looking back on World War I, I have to ask, what was achieved? And I have to shake my head and say nothing, what did those 15 million die for?

Looking on the reasons for the outbreak of World War I, the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, in retrospect it looks likes an excuse. If one were to forget the politicians, this looks like, from my point of view, like a family feud between the members of the European Royal Family, who were of course all related through Queen Victoria.

Before the war these individuals diverted an awful lot of their empires resources to building up modern armies and navies, each trying to outdo the other, the rivalry between Kaiser Wilhelm II of the German Empire and King George V and their desire to build bigger capital warships than the other.

All involved believed it would be a short war, having studied medieval battles; many of the Generals did not appreciate how modern weapons and defensive tactics development would affect the war, despite the lesions of the Boar War and the Russo-Japanese War.

As a result, the war lasted for four very long years of trench warfare. A front developed across Europe from the North Sea in Belgium, down to Lorraine in France, a front which moved very little and saw the deployment in a war for the first time of the machine gun, the tank and poison gas.

As the leaders of the great empires poured more and more resources into this war, the citizens were neglected, leading to revolutions, which eventually lead to the end of the war, but the German, Russian, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires had fallen, along with their rulers, and Europe was in a state of chaos which took years to settle down.

This family feud, grew and it unleashed, unimaginable horrors, and redrew the map of  Europe, and lead to the rise of Ethnic Nationalism within many of these new countries, that combined with a peace treaty which sought to punish nations for the war rather than the individuals which started the war, left Europe primed for another war, just 21 years later, where over 60 million people died.

Looking back on things now, I can honestly say that all the signs pointed to a war like this happening, I am sure that if the rulers had stepped back and looked at the big picture they would have seen it coming Of course we can say that now, who knows if we ever get into the position Europe was in at the turn of the 20^th Century, will we be able to step back and look what’s coming on the horizon, I just don’t know.

But some people did see the war coming and they spoke out against the on coming storm, The Bahá’ís saw this war coming. Between 1867 and 1870, Bahá’u'lláh wrote letters to the kings and rulers of the world, but he also wrote individually to the British Queen, the Prussian King, the Emperors of France and of Austro-Hungary, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, the Shah of Persia and the Czar of Russia.

He wrote in general to all the rulers of earth, and counseled them not to use arms and war as a way to reconcile their differences, but to unite to find other ways to resolve the issues.

“O Rulers of the earth! Be reconciled among yourselves, that ye may need no more armaments save in a measure to safeguard your territories and dominions. Beware lest ye disregard the counsel of the All-Knowing, the Faithful.

Be united, O Kings of the earth, for thereby will the tempest of discord be stilled amongst you, and your people find rest, if ye be of them that comprehend. Should any one among you take up arms against another, rise ye all against him, for this is naught but manifest justice.”

Baha’u'llah, The Proclamation of Baha’u'llah, p. 13

Most of the rulers that Bahá’u'lláh wrote to, ignored his message, among them only Queen Victoria took notice, she is reported to have said upon reading the letter:-

“If this is of God, it will endure; if not, it can do no harm”.

Over the next 50 years, the dynasties of the other rulers all came to an end, as they continued to use war as a way to solve their problems and treated their citizens with contempt.

When `Abdu’l-Bahá was released from his imprisonment in 1911, he set out on a great journey to the west, where he counseled people about the forthcoming war, advising them how the world could avoid falling into the abyss it was staring into.

“I wonder at the human savagery that still exists in the world! How is it possible for men to fight from morning until evening, killing each other, shedding the blood of their fellow-men: And for what object? To gain possession of a part of the earth! Even the animals, when they fight, have an immediate and more reasonable cause for their attacks! How terrible it is that men, who are of the higher kingdom, can descend to slaying and bringing misery to their fellow-beings, for the possession of a tract of land!

The highest of created beings fighting to obtain the lowest form of matter, earth! Land belongs not to one people, but to all people. This earth is not man’s home, but his tomb. It is for their tombs these men are fighting. There is nothing so horrible in this world as the tomb, the abode of the decaying bodies of men.

However great the conqueror, however many countries he may reduce to slavery, he is unable to retain any part of these devastated lands but one tiny portion — his tomb! If more land is required for the improvement of the condition of the people, for the spread of civilization (for the substitution of just laws for brutal customs) — surely it would be possible to  acquire peaceably the necessary extension of territory.

But war is made for the satisfaction of men’s ambition; for the sake of worldly gain to the few, terrible misery is brought to numberless homes, breaking the hearts of hundreds of men and women!

How many widows mourn their husbands, how many stories of savage cruelty do we hear! How many little orphaned children are crying for their dead fathers, how many women are weeping for their slain sons!

There is nothing so heart-breaking and terrible as an outburst of human savagery!

I charge you all that each one of you concentrate all the thoughts of your heart on love and unity. When a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. A thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love. Thoughts of war bring destruction to all harmony, well-being, restfulness and content.

Thoughts of love are constructive of brotherhood, peace, friendship, and happiness.

When soldiers of the world draw their swords to kill, soldiers of God clasp each other’s hands! So may all the savagery of man disappear by the Mercy of God, working through the pure in heart and the sincere of soul. Do not think the peace of the world an ideal impossible to attain!”

`Abdu’l-Bahá, Paris Talks, p. 29

Alas the world did not listen, and over the next 40 year’s, 75 million people died in the two world wars.

`Abdu’l-Bahá had a solution though:-

“A Supreme Tribunal shall be established by the peoples and Governments of every nation, composed of members elected from each country and Government. The members of this Great Council shall assemble in unity. All disputes of an international character shall be submitted to this Court, its work being to arrange by arbitration everything which otherwise would be a cause of war. The mission of this Tribunal would be to prevent war.”

`Abdu’l-Bahá, Paris Talks, p. 155

We have such an organisation today, the United Nations, its not perfect, yet, but if we all work together and give the UN the resources it needs, perhaps we can give a fitting tribute to the millions who have died, an end to wars of aggression.

Now wouldn’t that be a splendid tribute to the Tommy’s.

Today was the Newcastle upon Tyne Walk for Peace, I have already talked about what it was so I will simply talk about how it went.

Myself and Ineke took the bus from mine, I live round the corner from the Sikh Gurdwara so it was easier to leave her car at ours, and arrived at the Hindu Temple for about 9:20ish. We had a breakfast of Samosas and enjoyed a nice cup of tea.

The participants soon filled the hall, there were representatives from many faiths and groups, Quakers, Hindus, Muslims, Catholics, Sikhs, Anglicans, Jains and even a fully suited and booted Buddhist monk. There were five Bahá’ís present, myself, Fariba, Ineke, Kathleen and Gillian.

The guests of honour, the Lord Mayor Councillor Mike Cookson and his wife, the leader of Newcastle City Council, Councillor John Shipley and the leader of the opposition Councillor Nick Forbes all arrived shortly before we began the walk.

The Bishop of Newcastle, The Right Reverend John Martin Wharton, introduced the concept of the walk to us and then the Lord Mayor was presented with a copy of the Bhagavad Gita by the Hindu Temples president who lead us in a lovely prayer (Hindi sounds much nicer than then English translation, though the message of peace is still the same).

We then walked down the West Road, stopping at the Church of the Venerable Bede, the the new Vicar there asked us to pray for peace, particularly in Iran, given the current situation.

We then headed down the the Central Mosque on Elswick Road, but on the way we passed the site where 7 year old John Heneghan was killed a few weeks ago, I had mixed this up with a hit and run incident around the same time elsewhere in the city. So the Lord Mayor, Leader of the Council and his opposite, paid their respects along with the cities religious leaders.

We arrived at the Mosque a little behind schedule but were warmly welcomed and listened to several verses from the Holy Qur’an, and we were asked by the Mosques Imam, to take with us three words, patience, tolerance and forgiveness, and if we applied these to our daily lives, then we would have peace in our city, peace in our country and peace in our world. Very wise words indeed.

We then wandered along Elswick Road to the Sikh Gurdwara, passing by the former location of the Elswick Road Synagogue, the Church of St Matthew and the Big Lamp and the Harre Krishna Centre. We even caught a glimpse of the Geordie Mecca, St James Park.

We came to the Gurdwara, where we were helped in covering our heads, and we went upstairs and listened to some wise words of advice from the president of the Gurdwara.

“No one is my enemy, no one is a stranger and everyone is my friend.”

Guru Arjan Dev, Guru Granth Sahib

We then listened as the Lord Mayor and Hari Shukla, the brains behind the City for Peace initiative, we then moved down to the Langhar Hall where the Sikh community served us with a beautiful lunch.

All in all it was a wonderful day and I got to meet a lot of wonderful people from various different faiths and background, and I think all whom attended really took away knowledge of the common values that tie the various religious communities of Newcastle together.

I will share with you a Bahá’í, which says a lot about what we need to become if peace is to prevail, and God willing, we will all get there.

“Be generous in prosperity,
And thankful in adversity.

Be fair in judgment,
And guarded in speech.

Be a lamp unto those,
Who walk in darkness.

Be eyes to the blind,
And a guiding light.

Be a breath of life,
To the body of mankind.

Be a dew to the soul
Of the human heart.

And a fruit upon the tree,
Of humanity.”

Bahá’u'lláh

I took plenty of pictures, you can follow our route with them on the map below, or just look at the album.

God Bless and let us all pray for peace in the world.

Michael

Map & Photos