Designing a Peace Pole

By Bobbi Tayne Gerlits

We knew it would be a challenge, but we were willing to accept it. The benefits to us, to the FUSF community, and hopefully to the wider community, would be well worth our efforts. In late spring of 2008 the PEACE Ministry decided to design a Peace Pole. It was to be our gift to the First Universalist Society in Franklin.

I first encountered the idea of a Peace Pole a little over a year ago when I was researching the International Day of Peace. The Peace Pole Project offered a wonderful explanation of Peace Poles.

“A Peace Pole is a hand-crafted monument that displays the message and prayer May Peace Prevail on Earth on each of its four or six sides, usually in different languages. There are more than 200,000 Peace Poles in 180 countries all over the world dedicated as monuments to peace. They serve as constant reminders for us to visualize and pray for world peace.”

Now that we knew about the Peace Pole Project, the PEACE Ministry wanted to be a part of it. We felt that the sentiment of the Peace Pole was in perfect alignment with two of our Principles:

We covenant to affirm and promote:
• The inherent worth and dignity of every person
• The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.

Deciding to bring a Peace Pole to FUSF was easy. Designing the Peace Pole proved much more challenging, and brought into the forefront another of our Principles – the use of the democratic process.

Try to imagine the challenge we faced during this design phase. Should our Peace Pole have four sides or six? Should it be made out of aluminum or Western Red Cedar? Should it have four languages, six languages, eight languages, or twelve languages? Should the languages be on Plexiglas plaques or should they be sandblasted on the Peace Pole? And, probably most important, what languages should we choose?

Deciding which languages to include was the greatest challenge. All were worthy! We wanted all of them! The Peace Pole Makers USA offered 50 Standard Language choices and 83 Special Languages. The Standard Language choices ranged from Arabic to Zulu and also included Leaf Prints, Paw Prints, and Sign Language. The possibility of including Leaf Prints and/or Paw Prints brought to mind another Principle: Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. The Special Language choices ranged from Albanian to Zuni and included many Native American languages.

The PEACE Ministry had no trouble agreeing on a four-sided, Western Red Cedar, sandblasted Peace Pole, with eight languages. Once that was decided we had to whittle down the 133 languages into something more manageable. Members offered languages for consideration and included their reasons for offering them. In typical UU fashion it was a wonderful discussion of interesting ideas and perspectives. The members brought forward a total of 16 languages for consideration, and it was at this point that the democratic process was employed.

The PEACE Ministry would like everyone viewing the Peace Pole to be able to read our prayer in his or her native language, however, that’s not possible. There aren’t enough sides to the Pole and nowhere near enough space. In our hearts and minds our Peace Pole includes all languages and honors all beings. We have represented our feelings of world inclusiveness by selecting the following languages, which are listed in the order in which they are displayed: English, Arabic, Swahili, Hebrew, Chinese, Spanish, Hindi, and Hungarian.

Please join us after services on Sunday, September 21st as the members of the PEACE Ministry give our gift of a Peace Pole to the First Universalist Society in Franklin. We have specifically chosen this day to have the Peace Pole dedicated. It is the International Day of Peace.