Christmas wishes honouring the whole ambivalence of the feast. We celebrate the birth of the „Prince of peace“ and know about and live in so much non peaceful surrounding!

A cry is heard in Ramah – deep anguish and bitter weeping. Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted – for her children are gone. (Jeremiah 31:15)

This Christmas, and as 2012 comes to a close, Rachel’s lamentation reverberates in Newton, Connecticut where 27 people were massacred, 20 of them six and seven year-old children.

In various parts of the globe, countless other situations of horrific violence against children – and humanity as a whole – specially after 9/11, manifest in catastrophic carnage because of Empire’s pursuit of hegemonic control and domination.

While many celebrate the season with family and friends, the permanent war on terror, climate change, the capitalist financial crisis and renewed militarism continue to wreak unprecedented havoc on people’s lives.  If there is therefore any other time that we need peace – peace based on justice – it is now.

The People’s Forum on Peace for Life wishes everyone a New Year filled with hope and courage to confront and overcome the root causes of conflict and violence – political, economic, religious, even psychological – so that we may in our time bring an end to the senseless massacre of innocents across the world.

A liberating and blessed Christmas to one and all!
Sincerely,

The Peace for Life Secretariat