The International Day of Peace which was established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly, and observed around the world each year on 21st September is here again. We in PROCMURA welcome the day and the period and also express our delight of the theme for the 2020 celebrations which is: “SHAPING PEACE TOGETHER”. For PROCMURA, like everyone else, this year’s World’s Peace Week will be marked with an added focus as the COVID - 19 pandemic has created so much pain and uncertainty for humanity, that peace in its wholeness (Shalom in Judaism and Christianity and Salaam in Islam) is greatly disturbed.
PROCMURA joins the rest of the word in commemorating the International Week of Peace under its own created sub-theme: “THE PLACE OF RELIGION IN PEACE BUILDING”. Religion and religious leaders in Africa, which is PROCMURA’s area of operation, are known to have important contributions to make in promoting and shaping peace together with other stakeholders. To that end, PROCMURA calls upon religious leaders, men, women and youth of all religions to rise up an advocate for peace in its wholeness. All are encouraged to do so in their communities and countries and ensure that they remember the entire world in their prayers for peace. Mutual religious tolerance, building social cohesion, community resilience against violence, and against those who perpetuate it should be our added focus.
We call on our constituencies in Africa to invite all and sundry to advocate and live up to PROCMURA’s vision of an ‘African continent where Christians and Muslims communities in spite of their differences, work together for justice, peace and reconciliation, towards the holistic development of the human family and the environment’.
To ensure that we do it together, PROCMURA’s Central office with its stakeholders and constituencies will mark the week by embarking on awareness raising on the importance of the peace week at the community level. This will be done through prayers, holding peaceful processions (peace walk), sharing meals with internally displaced persons and providing humanitarian assistance to displaced persons who have been affected by conflict. The programme this year will be implemented in South Sudan, Nigeria north and Liberia.
In doing these we will like to reiterate, the words of Nelson Mandela when he said: “Let there be justice for all. Let there be peace for all. Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all. Let each know that for each the body, the mind and the soul have been freed to fulfil themselves.”
For Christians and Muslims in Africa and the world at large, when we say in the churches and mosques ‘Peace (Shalom and Salaam) be unto you’ and get the response ‘unto you also Peace (Shalom and Salaam)’, Let us Live it.
MAY THE GOD OF PEACE GRANT US PEACE AND ENABLE US TO ADVOCATE PEACE AND LIVE PEACE
PROCMURA
