Ahead of the Silent Walking Vigil for Peace this Saturday (19th Sept) in London we re-share an article by Steve Day reflecting on the process of organising the vigil, alongside a poem by Steve, and a series of short reflective reading to help prepare our hearts and minds.

Writing seven months into the planning for A Silent Walking Vigil For Peace. An event that began in my mind as A Quaker Peace Rally and gradually, almost by some spiritual osmosis has taken on a deeper template; deeper than anything we know what to really name. For those of us involved in its planning, this walking vigil has already reached a collective depth of understanding that is far greater than ourselves. It has brought us together, not merely as ‘friends’ but as kith and kin.

I’m sure it’s true not just for me but for many others, however bright a Quaker Light we can evoke for peace in that moment of gathering on the 19 September 2026 at the Victoria Embankment, Whitehall Gardens, it will not eclipse some of those small, precious passing points in time which regularly inhabit our planning. We know something special is happening.

Peace is not something you must hope for in the future. It is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it.

Thomas Merton (1915-1968)