New Year vigil for peace
A vigil for‘Peace in the NewYear’was held by a Perthshire community on January 1.
The Comrie Centre for Peace and Reconciliation is being set up in the former chapel at Cultybraggan Camp and on Monday locals joined Buddhist nun Sister Candasiri there for the two-hour event.
The chapel is being brought back into use this year and the idea of the CCPR is for it to be totally non-denominational.
The chapel is currently undergoing renovation work and will be formally opened in the spring.
Meanwhile, people can use it to spend time in stillness, prayer or contemplation.
Speaking about the New Year’s day vigil, Sister Candasiri of Milntuim Hermitage in Glenartney said:“It was a simple beginning and I was very pleased some people braved the chill and sat with me and Tuya, who is originally from Mongolia and was visiting Milntuim over the holidays.
“We had gone along to the chapel early to light the stove, set out some mats and try to get it a bit cosy so that people could sit comfortably for as long as they wanted to stay.
“Fortunately everyone who came had heeded the advice on the notice and came very well muffled up as it didn’t get warm at all.
“But we sat with candles and incense and it was very peaceful.
“An extract from a short reading taken from Thomas Merton’s‘The Way of Chang Tzu’seemed to encapsulate the open, listening quality of the occasion. It read: ‘Some power stands behind all this and makes the sounds die down. What is this power?’”
Sister Candasiri added:“Over the next weeks the chapel will stay open. The candles, mats and chairs are there for anyone who would like a few minutes’quiet during a busy or confusing day.
“In the spring we plan to have an
Sister Candisiri and Tuya Purevgonchig official launching with the planting of a tree or shrub in the area beside the chapel which is designated as a peace garden.”
The chapel is in the first hut on the right as you go into the camp.
I was very pleased some people braved the chill