Parishes and schools prepare to mark Peace Sunday on 18 January

Pax Christi England and Wales reports that orders for Peace Sunday materials have been arriving in the London office from Abingdon, Cambridge, Liverpool, Macclesfield, Preston, Wood Green, Southwark and elsewhere.

With the support of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, nearly 1,400 parishes in 10 dioceses have been sent the Peace Sunday resource pack and Pax Christi hopes to distribute 20,000 of its new Peace Sunday prayer cards.

The Archdiocese of Liverpool’s Justice and Peace Commission has organised this year’s Peace Sunday Memorial Lecture at 2pm on 18 January at St Vincent de Paul parish in central Liverpool. In light of Pope Leo XIV’s recent World Peace Day Message, Dr Joanna Frew will speak to the title, “Towards an ‘Unarmed and Disarming Peace’: Seeking Sustainable Security for an Unstable World.”

This year’s crib offerings in the archdiocese will be sent to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem to support Christian communities in Israel and Palestine.

St George’s Cathedral Southwark, where Pat Gaffney will speak at the 10am Family Mass, will mark the day with Pax Christi prayer cards and other resources distributed to the congregation. St Mellitus, at Westminster’s Tollington Park, will hold an appeal and second collection for Pax Christi and use the Pax Christi prayer as part of the bidding prayers, along with children’s liturgy ideas. Discussion over coffee after Mass will look at suggestions about working for justice and peace, and how to respond to Pope Leo’s recommendation that every community might become a “house of peace”.

Resources produced by Pax Christi include a liturgy booklet, prayer card and poster plus activities and liturgies for children and a presentation for secondary schools.

Pax Christi’s UK president, Bishop of Salford John Arnold, said: “I encourage you to celebrate Peace Sunday in your parish, underlining that it is the task of all of us to be peacemakers.”

Sr Katrina Alton, National Chaplain to Pax Christi England and Wales, told The Tablet: “In a world shaped by fear and rearmament, Pax Christi England and Wales receives Pope Leo’s call to an ‘unarmed and disarming peace’ as a mandate for radical Gospel nonviolence.”

Resources downloadable at: https://paxchristi.org.uk/peace-sunday-2026/

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