The Week of Prayer for World Peace starts this Sunday (15th October). As part of this year’s events, Lynn and Dave Morris of Stourbridge Meeting have been awarded the Wilson/Hinkes Peace Award.
This Award was established by the Week of Prayer for World Peace (WPWP) to recognise significant contributions by individuals, organisations, or projects in furthering peace, justice, and reconciliation. The award recognises Lynn and Dave’s work as “Journeymen Theatre” – a husband and wife duo who, over the last 10 years, have written, produced and performed, a number of powerful and thought-provoking productions. Acting under Concern, the productions have covered a range of themes reflecting Quaker Concerns and Testimonies. Several of the productions have been specially commissioned.
The award also recognises Lynn and Dave’s commitment to working towards some economic stability and educational development with the Seir Women’s Co-operative in Palestine (with which Stourbridge Quakers have an informal twinning relationship).
Lynn and Dave have recently decided to lay the Journeymen Theatre company down, and were encouraged to create a “legacy project” to enable their work to be documented for posterity, and to make the material accessible to other performers. The special book that is being created will include all nine scripts and a commentary on the background and motivation for each of the productions. Their contribution over a long period has been unique, and deserves its place in Quaker history. The legacy project has been part funded by CEQ Area Meeting and Stourbridge Local Meeting, and from Lynn & Dave’s own funds.
In accepting the award (at an online ceremony on 15 October) Lynn and Dave will record their appreciation of the support provided by Stourbridge Meeting and CEQ Area Meeting.
The Week of Prayer for World Peace was started as a Christian initiative in 1974. It soon became an interfaith activity, and now welcomes everyone, of all faith traditions or none. In 1974, those proposing the WPWP said “Patience will need to be an essential feature of this united act of prayer so that we may all not only learn from the past errors but also be open to fresh insights which the unprecedented modern situation demands”. Today’s organisers note that, sadly, these words are still pertinent today, in the third decade of the 21st century.