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Good morning. In spite of perceptions, last year the world became only slightly less peaceful than the previous year, according to the Global Peace Index. However, in 2016 the intensity of terrorism increased, with the number of countries suffering more than 500 deaths from terrorist acts more than doubling, up from 5 to 11.

My experience of building peace in local communities in Northern Ireland has given me a particular view on how violence and terrorism works. In conflicts between peoples, communities and countries, to be abusive to the other side is acceptable to your own side, but to suggest you might listen or talk to the other side is seen by your own side as betrayal. Each side excuses its own atrocities and jumps on any scrap of evidence that proves the other side is to be feared. And of course, when we add into the mix a belief that God is always on our side, it just gets worse.

Bob Dylan, the Nobel Prize Winner for Literature, wrote:

You don’t count the dead
When God’s on your side.’

If we create God in our own image, with a gun in one hand and a flag in the other, we’ve reduced God to a little idol. But if we take seriously the challenge to ‘love your enemies’ and ‘to do good to those who hate you’ then I believe it’s possible that the impulse to obliterate the other side at all costs can ultimately be replaced with the challenge of building peace and the painstaking work of reconciliation.

Lord, give us the vision to build a world free from violence where selfishness no longer brings suffering. Help us to devote ourselves to building peace and reconciliation. Amen.