Remembrance Day speakers encourage guests to seek peace

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This article was published 21/11/2023 (584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The two guest speakers came to the microphone from different religious backgrounds, but the focus from St Pierre Bible Fellowship Pastor Troy Dearborn and St Pierre parish priest Paulin Akpapupu was remarkably similar.

Both told the full house at the community hall, that they have a part to play in seeking peace, something so many have died for.

Dearborn praised veterans for their sacrifice.

“What a remarkable thing to give up your life for the sake of somebody else,” he said. “Their really is no more selfless action.”

Dearborn quoted John 15 in which Jesus speaks of those who give up their lives for their friends.

“In our culture we tend to think that the highest expression of love is romance, at least that’s what Hollywood would have you think,” he said.

However he added sacrificial love is far more powerful.

“This is what our nation’s soldiers demonstrated, not just for those they cared about, not just for friends, but for those they didn’t know, for future generations they would never meet, for me, for you, for your children,” he said.

Honouring those who sacrificed is to continue the work of peace according to Dearborn, which he said is not the natural state of the world, adding the First World War didn’t bring lasting peace like many had hoped.

“They said it was the war to end all wars and yet two decades later we were into [the Second World War] and we’ve had wars ever since,” he said.

He mentioned the war in Ukraine, Israel and Palestine as examples of that.

“These are violent but they also divide people,” he said. “They divide communities and societies.”

He told the crowd that peace requires work, saying the Biblical phrase “blessed are the peacemakers” implies that peace is something that is made.

“It’s intentional, it’s something that needs work,” he said. “It requires sacrificial love for the sake of others.”

“This is what our service members model for us, to love others sacrificially,” he continued. “That doesn’t just mean those who look like us or think like us. Peace requires something far more radical, to love those who are different.”

Father Paulin Akpapupu showed the crowd a peace sign, saying there are two parts to peace, including giving to Caesar what belongs to him and to God what belongs to God. He said to have peace you need justice, and said doing unto others as you would have them do unto you in important.

“When I give you half of this,” he said indicating the V shape he made with his two fingers, “it can mean accusation, or the other one I will not show now.”

“If you hold on to those principals our two fingers will always be out, giving true shalom to the people.”

He said we can follow the example of those who fought for peace.

“We must also participate in the work they have done by seeking peace,” he said. “Peace is a conscious effort to look for it.”

Akpapupu had the crowd rise to recite the Lord’s Prayer before encouraging them to shake hands with their neighbours as “a sign of peace”.