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May we be peacemakers

Text of the address given by the Lord Provost of Glasgow, Liz Cameron, at the Carols for Peace service organised by Glasgow City Council and Glasgow Churches Together in Glasgow City Chambers, Sunday 28 December, 2003

As Lord Provost of the City of Glasgow, I am delighted to welcome all of you to the Banqueting Hall of the City Chambers for our annual ‘Carols for Peace’ Service.

I welcome the St Mungo Singers who, as ever, lead us to think of spiritual concerns at this Christmastide, through the beauty of their music making. To their Musical Director, Mgr. Fitzpatrick, and his fellow clergy, I extend my Christmas greetings.

I am pleased to see members of Council and representatives of different faith communities joining with us in worship today. I extend a special welcome to my sister-provosts Betty Cunningham (East Renfrewshire), Pat Steele (East Dumbartonshire) and the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, Lesley Hinds. You could say the Lesley and I have begun our own peace initiative this year! A small step perhaps on the global scene, but a very necessary one for our nation and for democracy.

Our Carols for Peace Service is now a fixed tradition of Christmastide in Glasgow, and I am delighted that my predecessor, Councillor Alex Mosson, could be with us today as he has been a prime supporter of this service.

Messages from Christian leaders this year were significant in their repeated and urgent calls for peace. For we may enjoy a peace, albeit a measured peace, in our country, but war and its terrible consequences rage across the world. In the words of that fine old carol “It came upon a Midnight Clear”, despite the message of Jesus, we have witnessed “2000 years of war”.

This year, Pope John Paul called for an end to the evil of terrorism whose spectre across the earth is terrifying and proves that violence is met with violence in an ever increasing spiral of fear and hatred.

Yet, peace and love were implicit in Christ’s teaching. How tragic then that in Bethlehem, his birthplace and in the Holy Land, conflict rages.

Today we remember with love, the Mayor and the people of Bethlehem, of all faiths, who strive to keep their lives together in the midst of war.

We renew our prayers for all the communities of the Holy Land, of Iraq, of the Middle East - our prayers that a way to peace may be found.

We recognise both the tragedy and the complexity of the situation and we are aware of the terrible nature of what could be said to be a civil war, with all the horror that that phrase implies. For the peoples of that torn and troubled region share a great common heritage of faith, sprung as they are from the prophets, from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Let us pray then for guidance and wisdom this Christmas Season, that the way of peace and justice may be found.

In Glasgow, I am proud to support the strong inter-faith organisations that have steadily grown. I believe it is fitting that they choose the Museum of St Mungo as their meeting place. For St Mungo, whose very name means “beloved”, founded this city over 1400 years ago, as a monastery, a place of faith and peace. Let it now be a haven which shines as a beacon of love and respect towards all faith communities.

Let us, in Glasgow and Scotland, acknowledge with pride the huge contributions made to our city and nation by those who aspire to different faiths but to the same message of love. Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist – all faith communities share that message of respect for the beliefs of others. Thus our city, our country, are enriched.

I hope that this service today reminds us forcibly of the suffering of the people of Bethlehem and of all places where conflict rages, so that we redouble our efforts as peacemakers and in our own lives carry the message of the Prince of Peace whose birthplace is ravaged by a cruel and needless war.

May we be peacemakers and may our city and country be icons of peace and love, so that, after 2000 years of war, we may, in the words of that same carol, On a Midnight Clear, at last “hear the angels sing”.

I wish all of you a blessed Christmas Season and a peaceful and harmonious 2004.