“Hope is in short supply,” despair seeks to overwhelm us “but it has no future,” explains Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, at the inaugural assembly of 'Imagining Peace'.
Welby recalls some conflicts now underway. Ukraine: “Western powers have rightly supported Ukraine. During my visits to Kiev and Odessa I saw the exhaustion, courage and resilience of the Ukrainians.” And then the Middle East: “The immense horror of 7 October last year has aroused deep sympathy for the State of Israel, but it has also given rise to a renewed wave of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia in Europe.” And before "those who call for the extermination of the Jews, and not only in Israel, and that of the Palestinians in Gaza, we cry out to God against such sins and horrors. The only common feature is the death of innocents and the increase of fear, insecurity and hatred".
In the face of war, the United Nations has calculated that there are 56 open conflicts in the world. Can prayer stop them? "In prayer we demonstrate that there is an eternal hope and light that no darkness can overcome", "Secondly, prayer puts us in tune with the will of God". Finally, "prayer inspires imagination, an imagination capable of addressing our human inclination to create chaos and destruction in God's orderly creation".
