16 March 2018
Put some peace in your pocket this Christmas
The Methodist Church has launched an innovative booklet inhealth clubs, play centres and bars. Peace in Your Pocket is athought provoking 16-page booklet the size of a postcard, and75,000 copies are available in hundreds of venues nationwide untilearly January.
The booklet contains poems, pictures and thought-provoking pointsas it explores the issue of peace, and what it means today. Itcontains brief meditations for busy people, as well as pointers forthose who wish to look further into the topic.
'At Christmas we speak of 'goodwill and peace to all,'' says AntheaCox of the Methodist Church, 'but what does peace really meantoday? It used to be that peace was an absence of war, but todayterrorism makes it hard for us to feel at peace. And worldwidemillions of people are suffering and dying from the effects of war,even when their countries are not at war. So what does peace meanin our lives, our homes, our neighbourhoods and in the world? Thisbooklet is for anyone who is asking these questions, particularlypeople who would not normally go to church but who feel the need tothink reflectively about peace.'
The booklet contains quotations from Desmond Tutu, DietrichBonhoeffer and Satish Kumar, amongst others. It aims to providereaders with a few moments of calm, as well as challenging them totake further action to promote peace.
John Cooper, former president of the Methodist Youth Executive,said 'Pub chat often ends up on issues of the day, many of whichconcern violence and warfare. I'd love this book to help stimulatetalk on the solutions rather than just dwelling on theproblems.'
The booklet has an accompanying website,