Did You Know?/OUR PEACE CANDLE TRADITION

The "Peace Candle" on our communion table was presented to St. Giles by the fifty-voice Shallowford Presbyterian Church Youth Choir on Father's Day 2005 after their concert in our sanctuary. We burn this candle in every service of worship as a sign of our friendship with them, and to remind us of God's call to be peacemakers in the world following Jesus' example.

In 1985, the Rev Blair R. Monie, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in York, Pennsylvania, visited the Soviet Union. In the small town of Voronezh, an old woman approached him and pressed a small sum of money into his hand and asked that he do something for world peace. He recognized a deep desire and strong devotion in her eyes and in her voice and determined that he would do something special when he returned to the United States.

What could he do with these three rubles? After much thought, he purchased a small votive candle, placed it on the Communion Table and lit it. On hearing his story, his congregation agreed to make it a permanent accessory of the chancel and purchased a supply of votive candles so that they could make a "peace candle" available to any visitor to take back to his or her own sanctuary.

When we see the glow of our peace candle burning, we offer our prayers for peace. This small, non-threatening symbol of peace helps us to be praying people. Today, candles burn in the United States, England, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Kuwait, South Africa and Denmark.

In August 2004, when I became your pastor, I presented a peace candle to the St. Giles' Session from the Session of my former parish, Simonsdale Presbyterian Church in Portsmouth, Virginia. Our Session lights that candle during each of its meetings. Interestingly, Simonsdale had received the candle from Coleman Place Presbyterian Church in Norfolk, VA, upon the occasion of Rev. Fred Archer's installation as pastor there in February 2003. They had received it from the Royster Memorial Presbyterian Church in Norfolk whose youth had, in turn, received it when they were on a mission trip as a gift from members of the First Presbyterian Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota. As is God's peace, this is a light intended to be passed on.

The story of this simple expression of Christ's peace has touched many congregations! The light that matters most, of course, is not that which glows from this candle on our communion table, but, rather, the light that God has set in our hearts. That light is meant to shine in darkness. And we are called to share it with everyone.

--- Matt Matthews