World Quaker Day 2026: Let Peace Be Among Us (with Guest Editor Friends World Committee for Consultation)
September 28-October 4, 2026: This week’s messages are guest edited by Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) who are planning a global online meeting for worship on October 4 (World Quaker Day). The theme is Let Peace Be Among Us. The plan is to reach across many time zones from the Americas to Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Each hour of worship will be dedicated to, and hosted by, a different part of the world where prayers for peace are particularly needed. We’d love for you to join us. Register here to get involved.
September 28, 2026
Peacemaking is asking the hard questions
“‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ does not mean greeting each other and shaking hands. It means looking one another in the eye and asking: how have we historically marginalised? How have we justified violence against women? How have we pretended to make peace by giving handouts without asking why people are in need?”
September 29, 2026
Refusal to use weapons is not surrender
“We totally oppose all wars, all preparation for war, all use of weapons and coercion by force, and all military alliances: no end could ever justify such means. We equally and actively oppose all that leads to violence among people and nations, and violence to other species and to our planet. Refusal to fight with weapons is not surrender. We are not passive when threatened by the greedy, the cruel, the tyrant, the unjust.”
September 30, 2026
With language we construct our worlds
“Jiwasa is a fundamental principle and linguistic code in the Aymara language that means ‘communal we.’ In many ways, it relates with Quaker testimonies: community, integrity, peace, and harmony with nature….”
October 1, 2026
If governments invested in peace
“The world isn’t suffering from too many peacemakers. When people say, ‘but if pacifists were in charge, then x, y, z,’ I say pacifists aren’t in charge, have never been in charge, largely only even get a say in the media if they are there to be ostracised, and are not the people who have caused the wars currently tearing the world apart.”
October 2, 2026
Ye are called to peace
“Ye are called to peace, therefore follow it; that peace is in Christ…. All that pretend to fight for Christ are deceived; for his kingdom is not of this world, therefore his servants do not fight.”
October 3, 2026
The Quaker alternative to war
“The task of the Christian in this world is the establishment of the kingdom of God, of the supremacy of love. The natural and obviously rational way to achieve this aim is for each to practice love to all. It has always been the Quaker conviction that this practice of love is incompatible with warfare and that, if persisted in, it will in the long run achieve every right result that a war in the interests of justice has been held to achieve, and without the fatal drawbacks of war.”
October 4, 2026
Today: How to join in World Quaker Day
“Today, on World Quaker Day (Tenth month/October 4), we’ll gather for an extended, international, online meeting for worship. Each hour will be dedicated to a part of the world where prayers for peace are particularly needed—you’re welcome to join for as little or as long as you’d like. We’ll hear in particular from Quakers facing conflict where they live. This will be an opportunity to listen deeply to one another’s experience and learn how our faith shapes the way we each interact with the world.”
