Tag: Israel

We are Paper Cranes

Paper Cranes at the Hiroshima Childrens’ memorial, Japan
Photo by Gill Henwood

My friend, Gill, is touring Japan at present and has sent me photos of a visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial.

Whilst there she was able to share in the practice of making Origami Cranes (Orizuru). This is a traditional Japanese craft of paper-folding symbolizing hope, peace and healing.

It became linked with the Childrens’ Memorial at Hiroshima through the inspiration of Sadako Sasaki, a 12 year old girl who survived the 1945 atomic bombing of Japan by the USA, but who later died from leukemia. She was encouraged by a Japanese legend that folding 1,000 cranes grants a wish. When she was suffering and facing death she folded the paper cranes and this became a global icon for peace and the inspiration for the Children’s Peace Monument.

A Monument in the Peace Park is entitled ‘Atomic Bomb Children’. It was designed by Kazuo Kikuchi and Kiyoshi Ikebe, using money raised by Japanese school children. The figure of Sadako Sasaki is on the top and a boy and girl at the sides. Sadako holds a wire crane above her head. Behind the Statue are glass cases containing paper cranes.

Sadako’s wish, when making the paper cranes, was doubtless of personal healing, but her greater wish was to have a world without nuclear weapons.

When Gill and friends made their paper cranes they left behind a statement common to thousands of visitors of a desire for a world without nuclear war.

This desire is in forefront in many minds just now as we try to live with Global upheaval threatening the whole human race. Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan are names that easily trip off the tongue but are easily forgotten when other struggles take up the media’s attention. Even the struggle between Israel, the USA and Iran have become linked with whether the cost of petrol might spoil our Easter holiday! Humanity is sadly fickle and can be self seeking. Yesterday Holy Week began with the ‘Hosannas’ of Palm Sunday but how quickly that moved to ‘Crucify Him!’ by Good  Friday.

It is often hard to fathom human motives.

We know that the regime in power in Iran is a danger and threat to the world (not least to its own oppressed people!) It might therefore be a justification by Mr Trump and his ally in Israel for the action they are undertaking.  Yet there appear to be other motives which are drawing humanity to the kind of brink we saw in mid-1930’s Germany.

Perhaps the difficulty in trying to see similarities between the Nazi era and now is that it is far more complex. Too many vested interests are swirling around a vortex of demonic activity. To me, this feels like Satan’s time and it isn’t clear who are his agents. It would be wise, I feel, to remind ourselves of the events of August 6th 1945 and take heed.

It is always much easier to make war than it is peace and easier still to use God and religion to justify it but there are consequences leading from this which are not always taken into account. For example, the World Economy and resultant poverty and anxiety.

So, yesterday’s warning by Pope Leo is pertinent. Speaking during the Palm Sunday Mass, he said:

“Jesus is the King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war but rejects them.”
He lamented the many wounds of the human family in our world today, as people cry out to God with the “painful groans of all those who are oppressed by violence and are victims of war.”
“Christ, King of Peace, cries out again from His cross: God is love! Have mercy! Lay down your weapons!  Remember that you are brothers and sisters!” said the Pope.     [source:Vatican News]

In this Holy Week of the Christian Church we are therefore reminded how Jesus confronted the evil, which so easily grips humanity, with the power of God’s Love.  John’s Gospel makes it very clear that the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ is a Victory. It is a Victory of Love over all that is unlove (sin) in the world. It is also a victory in which God’s plan for all of Creation is renewed by a deep outpouring of total freely given Love. That seems to run counter to the way human beings seem to be behaving. However, the paper cranes have a message too. They only happen when they are fashioned and made in that chosen image of peace. So, a renewed humanity only happens when we are fashioned and remade not with paper but with the love of God. 

As Professor John Barton, in his book, Love Unknown, says, Christians share Christ’s victory through sharing his … vocation to be the love of God for a fallen world, and like him going out to embody God whatever the cost.

In her own way that is what Sadako Sasaki achieved, So may we.

[Mr G and Gill Henwood]
30th March 2026

Innocent victims

Nearly grown up fox cub at Latton Vicarage. Photo by Lynn Hurry

“Excuse me bothering you.
I am one of the little fox cubs who live in the garden of Latton Vicarage. I belong to a family of foxes who live safely at the top end of the garden. My mamma died earlier in the summer but papa is still with us.
As you see I am almost fully grown now and this is thanks to my surrogate mama, Auntie Lynn. She looks after us, feeds us and cares about us. She is a loving and kind person and she has taught us gentleness and care for others. I suppose you know that us foxes tend to be a bit self-centred.

What I want to bring to your attention today is about other foxes who have no one to care for them, and not just foxes.

Aunty Lynn has been telling us about the awful things that are happening in the bigger world at the moment. She told us about places called Gaza and Israel and another with a more difficult name – I think it’s called Youkrane.
Lots of terrible things are going on at the moment. Humans are fighting each other. Not in the playful way me and my sisters and brothers do – that’s just fun – but violently and with guns, bombs, missiles, shells which explode. There are so many people injured or killed. Homes are destroyed and many people, including children, old people, vulnerable sick people need lots of attention and love.

But I also want to talk about the animals. Like the children, they are innocent. They’ve done nothing wrong. So many of them are suffering. Many have been completely abandoned. Others have been injured as the bombs have destroyed the places where they live. Some have been buried under the rubble. There is no one to rescue them or animal doctors to make them better. Cats, dogs, donkeys,cattle, sheep, chicken, even some animals I’ve never heard of who lived in a zoo, are facing death and are in pain. They can’t find food, water, warmth.
They don’t know what’s happened to them or why. The humans who cared have too many other troubles to worry about animals. They don’t mean to abandon them. It’s just what happens when human beings fall out of love for each other and fight.

So I’m very grateful that Aunty Lynn loves and cares for others and all of you who care for other animals. We don’t always say, ‘thank you’, but we are lucky, especially when we think about other animals much worse off than ourselves.

Please think about the animals suffering in the places of war. Please pray for them.”

Lord God,
you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power.
You created all things for your glory,
yet there are those in your Creation who languish in pain and suffering.

Among them, we pray for all animals who have been abandoned
and who have lost security and shelter.
We pray for those without food and who are thirsty in places
where there is no water.
We pray for the animals injured by bombing, shrapnel or fallen buildings;
for those who are trapped and are dying in the rubble.

In the trauma of war and violence, stretch out your loving hands
and bless all animals in need today,
whether wild, in captivity, on the streets, lonely and afraid.
Please bless also, all who had to abandon their pets as they too fled from safety.
The hardest decisions may be small in the face of terrible violence
but hearts will have been be broken.
Please be with all who are missing their pets and grieving for them.

Lord, as Pope Francis told us that our animals will have a place in Paradise,
may those who have and died find a home in your eternally loving heart.

Lord,have mercy and bless with your peace those in conflict at this time.
Amen

[Mr G]