Bethlehem Peace Light

Several years ago, during the season of Advent, my wife and I visited our neighbours for dinner. We had a great time over food and conversation, catching up with one another after quite a while of very short “Hi, neighbour!” kinds of interactions. Our neighbour told us of a project she has been involved with for several years. The Bethlehem Peace Light, also called the International Peace Light, carries a flame from Bethlehem to the world.

Every year since 1986, safety permitting, an Austrian Boy Scout or Girl Guide has been chosen as the Peace Child. The Peace Child travels to Israel to receive a flame lit from a perpetually-burning oil lamp in The Church of the Nativity. This church, in Bethlehem, is the traditional birthplace of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

The Peace Child then transports the light to Vienna. At a ceremony there, the light is passed to representatives of Scouts and Guides throughout Europe. The light is sent with them to be passed along to “houses of worship, hospitals, homeless shelters, old people’s homes, prisons, and places of public, cultural and political importance – to anybody who appreciates the significance of the ‘gift'”.

Since 2001, the Light has also crossed the Atlantic Ocean to New York and from there has been taken to various places throughout North America by volunteers, including our neighbour. The map below shows where the Light traveled in 2015. The goal is to some day have the Light of Peace burning perpetually throughout the world.

Since I heard about this, I have been thinking of rivers of light, branching from the place of the Christ Child out to countries around the world, beginning with a light carried by a child of today. I imagine an endless candlelit procession, where we all meet new friends and become neighbours, passing the peace to everyone we meet.

I have also thought about what our neighbour has been up to and how grateful I feel that she has shared her part of it with us. The true Good News is borne by all of us.

We, too, took home a candle lit by the Peace Light and have been using it to light our Advent candles. In a dark season of the year, and of our world, this light recalls the first chapter of John’s Gospel: “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”

“We receive this Light with the message of Peace to Everybody – May all those who accept this Light pass on that Peace”

International Peace Light, Sharing of the Light Ceremony