I firmly believe the EU has been invaluable for the stability and peace enjoyed in Europe. I’m devastated by the referendum result, and the resulting rift that has opened not only in Europe, but in Britain as well.
Composer Karl Jenkins was born and raised in Wales, having a Welsh father and Swedish mother; a European composer then. Healing Light comes from his choral work The Peacemakers, written as a sequel to his piece The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace.
Deep peace of the running wave to you
Deep peace of the flowing air to you
Deep peace of the quiet earth to youAmen.
Deep peace of the shining stars to you
Deep peace of the gentle night to you
Moon and stars pour their healing light on youAmen.
Deep peace of Christ, The light of the world to you
Deep peace of Christ to you.
Deep peace of Christ, The light of the world to youAmen.
The Peacemakers draws on the words of modern Peacemakers including Ghandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Mother Theresa and the Dalai Lama, in addition to words from scripture or leaders of several world religions, and incorporates a variety of musical traditions and instruments from around the world. Karl Jenkins talks about The Peacemakers here. A full performance of The Armed Man can be seen here and a full performance of The Peacemakers here (music by a Welsh-Swede, performed mainly in English in the Netherlands, what’s not to love!).
There is particular poignancy about both choral works for me at this moment. I am grieving what has been lost, and beyond angry at the role I have seen the rhetoric, careless of wider global impact, from our general faith leadership play in the decisions that were made by some of my extended family members in deciding their votes last week.
From The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace, the Agnus Dei:
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.
(Lamb of God, you who take away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
Lamb of God, you who take away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
Lamb of God, you who take away the sins of the world, grant us peace.)
With the situation in the middle east as it is, and news of yet another terror attack, this time in Turkey, more than ever we should not be pushing away our friends and neighbours. There are bigger things to address.
Finally, another excerpt from The Peacemakers, Karl Jenkins setting of Ghandi’s words, performed here by a choir in Meißen, Germany:
“I offer you peace. I offer you love. I offer you friendship. I see your beauty. I hear your need. I feel your feelings. My wisdom flows from the Highest Source. I salute that Source in you. Let us work together for unity and love.” Mahatma Gandhi
Wheat & Tares 
Thankyou HH, what a catastrophe this has been from start to finish. I think the EU has been one of the greatest acts of civilisation the planet has ever seen. Narrow self interest will take it’s place. Brotherhood denied.
It seems even our politicians do not want to be associated with enacting this destructive rift.
Thanks for those clips Hedgehog. I am hopeful that there will still be peace in Europe even if the EU dissolves. I hope the rise of Nationalism will not necessarily spark the imperialist instincts which brought about the world wars. I take Stephen Pinker’s view from “Angels of our Better Nature: Why Violence Has Declined,” that the world wars were aberrations in humanity’s long march towards a more peaceful and empathetic world. Hopefully, we can retain a strong sense of interconnectedness with other nations, even as our individual distinctivenesses crystallise.
Maybe the EU will forcefully make Britain stay in, like the Northern States did the Southern States. I mean, who needs that agency stuff, anyway?
Wayfairer, absolutely. Today we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the battle of the Somme (WW1). What irony.
Nate, I guess we can hope, though I don’t feel very hopeful at the moment. In today’s world interconnection is vital.
TrueThat, I’m baffled by your statement. I don’t know enough US history to judge how accurate your assessment of the Northern/ Southern state thing might be, but it hasn’t been raised as a remote possibility for Britain in the EU. On the contrary, the sentiment seems to be that if we’re going to go, could we please get on with it in a timely manner.
You mean you’ve never heard of The War Between the States, aka the Civil War? Eleven southern state tried to secede from the union, and the northern states made them stay by force. Everyone seems to think the Northern States were perfectly justified in doing that. Why shouldn’t the EU do the same thing with Britain?
TrueThat – Pretty sure if the Southern States would have held elections on the matter of seceding, allowing every person to vote (not just the white males), it would have been a resounding no. But since you don’t seem to believe it was about slavery, but about States rights, this probably won’t get through to you.
The comparison to the UK leaving the EU is not apt.
I don’t think Brexit is the opposite of peace. I think it would be a terrible mistake, and I think it certainly has security implications simply because it gives the EU less negotiating power with countries like Russia and China, but I certainly think Britain can remain on great terms with the EU.
I also don’t think Brexit will happen. Delay, delay, delay is the name of the game, and with enough delay, it simply won’t happen. But it’s very damaging. It’s like announcing you’re divorcing your spouse, but not moving out or contacting a lawyer for a few months, or whenever you get around to it. But in the end, Britain will remain in a bad polygamous marriage for the simple reason that divorce is a financial disaster, and when Britain sees that up close, the path will change.
TrueThat, unsurprisingly US history doesn’t figure much in the history syllabus in our UK schools. I know there was a civil war, and that it was about opposing attitudes to slavery, but that is all.
Frank is correct. It is not an apt comparison by any stretch.
Martin, what you are describing isn’t peace either.
Current opinion seems to be that it can’t be stopped
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-uk-leaves-the-eu-36671629), despite the referendum not being legally binding.
Whether the civil war was about slavery or not, the duly elected representatives of those states, on behalf of their constituents, decided to exit. The question of secession has been discussed since the founding fathers. My comparison is to note that in the case of Brexit, agency is being respected, and, presuming an eventual exit, it will be peaceful. In the case of the Civil War, agency was not respected, and resulted in widespread death. Just because the underlying reasons for the two exits differ don’t mean they aren’t about the same thing: agency.
TrueThat: you’re also conflating the scope. The UK voting to leave the EU is comparable to the US leaving the United Nations. It’s not trying to leave an established Country, and it’s also not happening 150 freakin years ago.
If Wales had tried to leave the UK 150 years ago, it absolutely would have led to war. That’s because it would have been a rebellion, not a simple “asking to leave”. The South didn’t simply use their “duly elected representatives” to say they wanted to exit. They chose to fire upon Federal troops and set up their own government.
“The poor South got a raw deal” is such a horrid argument, for so many reasons.
In addition to Frank’s argument, the United States was less than a hundred years old at the time of the Civil War. The Civil War was the first time we had armed conflict between our own members, members who had relative unity of language and ethnic heritage.
The EU is notable because it was a political and economic alliance of nations who have hundreds of years (maybe over a thousand years?) of armed conflict among it’s members. It overcame ethnic, national, religious, and language barriers. Brexit, fueled in large part on nationalist concerns, feels like a triumph of those tribal ideologies that have caused so many problems. The anniversary of a notable WWI battle evokes the memory of what nationalist/tribal ideologies can do to Europe.
TrueThat, I don’t regard the rise of nationalism as a good thing. Far right parties in other European nations are calling for their own referenda on the back of this result in Britain. It’s both destabilising and disturbing.
Frank, Mary Ann, Yes. Thank you.