{"id":114889,"date":"2025-08-15T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/?p=114889"},"modified":"2025-08-13T16:04:38","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T06:04:38","slug":"prayers-for-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/prayers-for-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"Prayers for peace"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A LUNCHTIME Prayer Vigil was held at the Barkly Square Peace Pole last week to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Hiroshima Day, 6 August.<\/p>\n<p>The vigil was organised by Ballarat Interfaith Network, Let\u2019s Talk Peace Ballarat, and Compassionate Ballarat, with the support of BGT Jobs &amp; Training Ballarat and Ballarat Regional Multicultural Council (BRMC).<\/p>\n<p>People of all faiths gathered at 12.30pm with the intention to support efforts to abolish nuclear weapons on the Worldwide 4th Annual Nuclear Prayer Day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were very lucky,\u201d said Madonna Quixley, Co-convenor, Let&#8217;s Talk Peace Ballarat, National Peace Sector Lead, Australian Charter for Compassion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt rained during the morning then, just before 12.30 the clouds parted, and the sun came out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were very pleased with the number of people who attended from all walks of life.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038 \" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/08\/Prayervigil2_96911.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"325\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">For the love of peace: Thirty-four people of different faiths attended the Lunchtime Prayer Vigil on Hiroshima Day, adding their support to an end to war and the abolishment of nuclear weapons. Photo: SUPPLIED<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe heard a variety of different prayers from different faiths and Belinda Coates read the moving poem \u2018Wage Peace\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn these troubled times, now more than ever, we need to renew our efforts to unite around our commonalities \u2013 especially our love for peace.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCharter for Compassion is a partner with Voices for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons which inaugurated this day of prayer and reflection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFollowing the gathering, many people joined us for coffee at the Barkley Square caf\u00e9 and told us of their experiences and how they were moved by the vigil and the stories from others.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were some amazing stories including some from people who had been to Hiroshima which had a massive effect on them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMay we never again experience nuclear war.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A LUNCHTIME Prayer Vigil was held at the Barkly Square Peace Pole last week to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Hiroshima Day, 6 August. The vigil was organised by Ballarat Interfaith Network, Let\u2019s Talk Peace Ballarat, and Compassionate Ballarat, with the support of BGT Jobs &amp; Training Ballarat and Ballarat Regional Multicultural Council (BRMC). People [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/prayers-for-peace\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":215,"featured_media":114893,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-114889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Prayers for peace - Ballarat Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ballarat marks Hiroshima Day with a prayer vigil for peace and nuclear disarmament, uniting diverse faiths under one powerful message.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/ballarat\/news\/prayers-for-peace\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prayers for peace - 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