Service commemorating the life and witness of Bl Franz Jagerstatter

Candles were lit in prayer, 'a sign of hope against the darkness of war and violence.'

An interfaith congregation gathered at Holy Apostles church, Pimlico, on Friday, 9 August, the 81st anniversary of Bl Franz Jagerstatter's martyrdom and Nagasaki Day, to give thanks for peacemakers and to pray for peace.

Jagerstatter was executed for refusing to serve in Hitler's army. The congregation prayed: "Let us be encouraged and inspired as we reflect on his witness. We pray for the strength to be peacemakers in our troubled world."

Music was led by Ellen and Gerry Teague. As the congregation filed in, they sang Peace Will Come by Tom Paxton, and the Taize chant The Lord is my Light. All those gathered then joined in a prayer saying "We pray to be peacemakers in our troubled world.' This was followed by a reading of the words of Franz Jagerstatter written in a notebook 1942, in which he stressed the need for Christians to take a stand against injustice.

Andrew Jackson, CEO of Pax Christi then gave a reflection on the life of Bl Franz Jagerstatter. He said: "This wasn't some blind, simplistic black and white fundamentalism - despite all the accusations that he had become extreme in his Catholicism. No - he saw the principality, the power and he named it and resisted it. What about us ?

We will say, of course, that we are not leaders, that we don't have the voice or the profile to have any impact. But then neither did Franz. Outside of a very local community in 1943, no one knew who he was or the stand he was taking. He didn't have a platform or a position that gave him a voice. He was an ordinary person just like us. But as he told us in our reading from his writings - we are just the people the world is looking for... Words teach, but personal example shows their meaning."

Read the full text of Andrew Jackson's reflection: www.indcatholicnews.com/news/50398

A litany of names and groups was read out (after every one came the response: 'We remember you'): Franz Jagerstatter; Josef Mayr Nusser; Franz Reinisch; Max Josef Metzger; Otto Schimek; all other conscientious objectors, (COs) from World War One and World War Two; All COs since 1945; members of the Society of Friends; Followers of the Anabaptist tradition; the COs of Israel and Palestine; The COs of Ukraine and Russia; The COs of the wars with Iraq, Afghanistan, and those of other countries in conflict.

The congregation was then invited to name other 'war resisters'. People recalled: St Oscar Romero, Blessed Julia Rodzinska, Steve Biko, Desmond Tutu, Mahatma Gandhi, Edith Cavell, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Bruce Kent and many more

Candles were lit in prayer, 'a sign of hope against the darkness of war and violence.'

One prayer asked for the intercession of Blessed Franz Jagerstatter: 'We give thanks for the witness of Franz Jagerstatter who has been beatified and recognised by the Church was a martyrs for peace. We pray that people through out the world will be inspired to followed their conscience . To go against the stream and stand up for peace."

The final song was 'Will you come and follow me' and those present left the church and gathered outside to walk in the interfaith procession, led by Buddhist Rev Gyoro Nagase to the London Peace Pagoda in Battersea Park for the Nagasaki Commemoration Ceremony there.

The service at Holy Apostles can be seen online here: www.churchservices.tv/pimlico/archive/recordings/H4CyzFcltKuvfo3