Peace march draws longtime activists and newcomers

Close to 50 people joined a march for peace Sunday. Here the group makes its way up North Main Street on their way to Birge Pond. | David Fortier

Posted By: David Fortier August 17, 2023

By David Fortier

Sunday’s March for Peace drew almost 50 people to the Federal Hill Green for the 1.2-mile walk to Birge Pond where there were prayers for peace and the singing of hymns on a sunny day that also brought kayakers and fishermen out to the pond.

“We are out here to promote peace,” said Bob Stone, a retiree who has been part of the peace movement for years. “We need more in the world really. We need a lot more.”

He said his main concerns are peace and the environment, but included among his priorities, equality and fair elections.

“The world is in dire straits,” he said. “We need more peace. We need more environmental protection, or we are all in trouble.”

The Bristol native said he hopes more people would make it a habit to attend marches.

For Deanna Mitchell Achille and Doug Henry, members of Asbury Methodist Church in Forestville, the march was a novelty.

“First time for me,” said Mitchell-Achille. “Love, joy, peace, we are all about it.”

Besides, she said, the day was beautiful and if she weren’t marching she would be home watching reruns on TV.

Henry said the march was a first for him, too, and it just happened that, since his mother was active in the church, the family had put it on the calendar.

“I thought it was a good thing to join the family,” he said.

Polly Anderson, of Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, said, “It’s a good message,” and that she was happy to support the cause.

Tina Olson, anther Gloria Dei Lutheran member, joined Anderson.

“Team Gloria Dei,” she said. “Let there be peace in the world today.”

Anderson said that her church, along with other Lutheran churches in the area, were promoting peace with a program of their own.

“They are meeting four weeks in a row, and they are doing the same thing,” she said.

The event was coordinated by the Connecticut Central Co-operative Parishes, a consortium of United Methodist churches throughout the state. Several Bristol churches belong to the consortium, including Prospect Methodist and Asbury Methodist.

Bill Bucklin, a lay coordinator from the Connecticut Central Cooperative Parish Worship Committee and a certified lay servant at United Methodist Church of Litchfield and Bantam, which is led by lead pastor Parker Prout, one of several Methodist pastors at the event, was among those who helped organize the march.

Prout provided introductory comments at the Federal Hill gazebo at the start of the march, and he led the prayers and singing at Birge Pond.

Asbury Methodist pastor Kun Sam Cho, not only played an integral role in the planning of the event, having obtained permits from the city and promoting the march through local media, but also introduced the idea of the march at a joint meeting in April, according to Bucklin.

Everyone jumped on board immediately, Bucklin, who was at the meeting, said.

“We came up with Sunday, Aug. 13, as a day that is symbolic because it is near what should have been the end of the Korean War, the armistice,” Bucklin said, “but it also falls in the month that World War II ended, which freed Korea from Japanese control. So, it is a mixed happy and sad day.”

He clarified that the march is not solely about Korea.

“The official name of it is ‘Let there be Peace on Earth’–which of course is the beginning of the hymn, ‘And let it begin with me’ and the subtitle is ‘A walk to raise consciousness for conflict resolution.’”

He said the march is born of a desire to try to work towards peaceful resolutions all over the world, in people’s hearts, churches and cities.

Bristol was common ground, since it is a central location among the churches leading the march.

At Birge Pond the group sang hymns, including “Let There Be Peace on Earth” and “Here, I Am, Lord.” Each of the pastors from the Cooperative Parishes spoke.

The last to speak, Asbury Methodist’s Cho said that it is his hope for the march to become an annual event, if not in August, then sometime during the year.

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