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Good morning.

Tomorrow sees the start of the annual Week of Prayer for World Peace. Begun in 1974, Christians and others have been using this week as a focus for prayer for half a century. I can’t imagine it ever having been more necessary than today. The ongoing hostilities following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may, at least for now, be dwarfed by the dreadful scenes from Lebanon, Israel and Gaza, yet both carry with them the threat of escalation into a wider regional or global war, Beyond these lie over a hundred other conflicts, in places such as Sudan and Yemen, whose stories rarely hit our headlines.

All too often, religion itself is prayed in aid; faith leaders are called upon to provide moral backing both for their nation’s cause and for the methods by which it is being pursued. ‘Our victory is God’s will’, goes the argument, ‘so whatever must be done to achieve it, comes with divine approval’. Edward Carpenter, who became Dean of Westminster Abbey, in the same year that he helped found the Week of Prayer for World Peace, would, like others who had lived through the European wars of the twentieth century, have known this well. And that if religion is used to sanctify war, it adds to the importance of faith in promoting and praying for peace.

So today I pray for all those who will mark this coming week. May they not be disheartened by the proliferation of conflict. May their prayers may be answered. And when they rise from prayer, may they join with people of all faiths and goodwill, to work for peace, even where the trumpets of war seek to drown all other voices.