The Light Peace from Bethlehem reached Republic of Moldova
Republic of Moldova

The Light Peace from Bethlehem reached Republic of Moldova

“The Light Peace from Bethlehem” project was first initiated in 1989 by Austrians scouts, in order to promote Peace and ecumenical dialogue among the confessions. Starting with 1995, the message of this event was defined as a peace one, directed to every human being that brings this light in their house. Yearly, the aim of this initiative is to share the Light Peace to as many people as possible. Throughout this international activity people tend to create Peace, not only to spread theoretical knowledge, but to promote the tolerance between different ethnic, cultural, political and religious groups. Each year Vienna is the host of an ecumenical ceremony (a religious rite, where representatives of Christian confession are gathered: Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and other), during which the participants receive as a symbol the flame, that was lit in the sacred place of Bethlehem. This formality is a sign that proves the scouting engagement to promote ecumenism, the dialogue between the confessions and peace as the method to reach others, not only between humans in the society, but also between religions and also states. Scouts bring this special light in churches, hospitals, hospices, orphanages, public institutions that involves people as well from administrational, political and cultural area, as prisoners, poor, ill and alone people in their community. In 2016 the motto of this project is to create peace using courage and creativity. Using exactly this skills, the scout groups from National Scout Association of Moldova “Speranta” and “Izvoras” went from the center of our land to its most western point and received the Bethlehem light from our friends ukranian scouts from PLAST, being guided by the leaders Ludmila Stoica, Ana Lazăr and Natalia Chiochiros. Following the tradition, this year Light Peace ceremonial was accompanied by romanian and ukranian carols, sang joyfully by the scouts. That was the moment when the weather conditions, boundary and custom officers didn’t matter, only scout, peace and solidarity were highlighted. Afterwards candles with the saint light were shared to scout groups “Porumbelul” and “Bineva” till it finally reached the headquarters of NSAM and also all the town and village churches where are active scout groups. The target for the next year, regarding this project, is to build a scout group who will be able to attend the main ceremony in Vienna and starting from there to share the light with all our citizens.
Number of participants
52
Service hours
156
Location
Ukraine
SDGS

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