Our Peace Pole will be dedicated on Epiphany Sunday, January 6, at the 10:00 a.m. worship service. Epiphany is a Greek word that means “to reveal” or “to make known”. Epiphany marks the final day of the Christmas season which is twelve days long. On this day Christians celebrate the day Jesus was revealed as the King of the World and the Prince of Peace by the magis' visit to the Christ child. We dedicate the Peace Pole on Epiphany because the message of Jesus to the world is “peace on earth, good will to all.”

The Peace Pole proclaims “May Peace Prevail on Earth” in eight languages: English, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, French, Hindi, Chinese, and Hebrew.

The intention of the Peace Pole is to make a statement (non-political, non-partisan) in support of efforts by all who work for peace.

As a part of their study of just war theories and pacifism, the Tuesday Bible Study discussed the Peace Pole. The op-ed article published in the Morning Sentinel under Rev. Ed Jones' name was drafted and extensively discussed by those in the Bible Study. Ed's article is posted on the bulletin board.

Our Peace Pole is one of over 200,000 Peace Poles in over 190 countries. There are Peace Poles in Canada at the magnetic North Pole, along the Jordan River in Israel, near the pyramids in Egypt, at the Hague, Netherlands, in Baghdad, at Gorky Park in Moscow, Russia, at the 2002 Winter Olympics site in Utah, and in Hiroshima, Japan. Former president Jimmy Carter, Pope John Paul II, Mother Theresa, and the Dalai Lama are among those who have dedicated Peace Poles.

The Peace Pole Project was initiated by the World Peace Society, which was founded in Japan in 1955. The World Peace Society is “a non-profit, member-supported, non-sectarian organization dedicated to uniting people across the world through the universal saying 'May peace prevail on earth.'” A wealth of information can be found at www.worldpeace.org .

Our thanks to Jim and Judy Marine for initiating the effort to erect a Peace Pole here. Jim and Judy attend regularly in the summer. In the winter they are in Florida where they have been involved in erecting about 35 Peace Poles in their county.

Waterville's First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, has erected a peace pole as a reminder of the common commitment to making our world a more peaceful place, a commitment shared by Christians, people of other faiths and people of no faith.

We acknowledge the destructiveness and horror of war and we commit ourselves to work for peace. In eight languages — English, French, Spanish, Hindi, Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew and Russian — the peace pole proclaims: “May Peace Prevail on Earth.”

It is not a coincidence that the erection of the peace pole comes at a time when we are in the sixth year of war in Iraq, one of the longest wars in our history, as we struggle to find and end.

The deaths of innocent men, women and children, the non-combatants, are called collateral damage. The toll is mounting as thousands of our soldiers are killed and wounded physically and mentally. Our Department of Veterans Affairs, overwhelmed with casualties from this and previous wars, is coping as best it can to provide care.

In my family, there were six men. Each has served in the military. My father, who was in the Navy, was wounded in World War I. My oldest brother, and Army paratrooper, served in World War II. My younger brother and I both served in the Korean War. He was in the Army and I was in the Navy. Another brother served in the Army. My youngest brother, in the Army infantry, was in Vietnam and suffers from post traumatic stress disorder. Our family, along with many others, knows the grim consequences of war.

In addition to the personal effect on us and our families, war has caused difficulty for our common life together as a nation.

When our unity is fractured, our standing is lessened in the world. We cannot speak with authority to others about the ways of democracy when the majority in our nation opposes this war. We have not been able to fully address challenges such as health care, poverty and climate changes because so much time, energy and resources are dedicated to the war in Iraq.

Where are the voices for peace among our religious leaders and our elected officials? Why is there a reluctance of those in positions of power to seek peace when we, the electorate, desire peace?

We have been study the morality and ethics of war in a study group at our church. As a resource, we are using the book “What About Hitler?” by Robert W. Brimlow, and we have been wrestling with the call of faith to nonviolence in an evil world. From the just war theory to pacifism, from wars and terrorism to self-examination, we are seeking to learn ways to be peacemakers in all aspects of our lives.

We believe we can learn from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, dealing constructively with the aftermath of brutal apartheid, and the Amish school incident in Pennsylvania, where the blood from murdered children was not even cleaned off the schoolhouse floor when Amish parents conveyed their forgiveness to the family of the person who had killed their children.

These provide us with a clear picture of the positive effects of reconciliation and forgiveness. Learning from the failures of previous wars can also be instructive.

Each person can speak out against violence and activities that belittle and discriminate against gays, minorities and ethnic groups. We can teach our children about peace and that bullying is not an acceptable behavior, at school, in our homes or in the national and international arenas.

We need to affirm that an over emphasis on winning at the expense of commitment to the purpose of the activity, be it sports, academics, business, becomes destructive to good character.

The peace pole stands as a reminder for us and for the community of our commitment to be peacemakers.