Ross Ahlfeld, a member of Catholic Worker and of Pax Christi Scotland, was present at the vigil held at Faslane nuclear submarine base on Saturday August 2. It was a moving occasion attended by almost 150 people, each of us with our banners and our own special prayers ahead of this week when we remember the devastation at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. For the Catholic Worker delegates, their replica Nagasaki Cross was the focus of their reflection, as Ross explains.
On the 2nd of August, Scottish Quakers, Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyterians and various other Christians from across Scotland gathered at the gates of Faslane nuclear submarine base on the banks of Gareloch to pray for peace.
We also gathered to give witness to our shared opposition to nuclear weapons and to mark the 80th anniversary of the devastating atomic bombs dropped upon the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the 6th of August 1945.
Together we prayed, sang hymns and listened to reflections from William Nolan, Archbishop of Glasgow, Mark Strange, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church and Rosemary Frew, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
The entrance to the base was adorned with various peace banners and flags, including our own Glasgow Catholic Worker Nagasaki Cross.
We carried our replica of the Nagasaki cross because the bomb dropped on Nagasaki detonated 500 metres from Urakami cathedral, destroying it while Mass was being said inside.
The blast heatwave incinerated and buried all the faithful inside the Cathedral. Only the cross survived amid the rubble.
Today the Nagasaki Cross is symbol of unity and reconciliation.
Today Scotland’s Christian denominations gathered in love as peacemakers, to give witness to our unity found in the body of Christ.
It is our most fervent prayer that this message of Christ’s love and unity be spread among all humanity, so that threat of nuclear obliteration be banished forever.