The Peace, Hope, and Justice Candle An international, fund-raising ministry of self-determination, created by and for craftspeople of South Africa, in cooperation with Hobson United Methodist Church, Nashville, TN, makes these candles available for purchase for your church altar, office, as a gift, or for personal meditation. Hand-crafted by South African artisans, the Peace, Hope, and Justice Prayer Candles are now available in the United States, through a partnership between the Nehemiah Project in Ivory Park, South Africa and Hobson United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tennessee. [Ordering information below.] PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT - Peace, Hope, and Justice Prayer Candles are made by craftspeople in Ivory Park, an informal settlement area north of Johannesburg, South Africa. Ivory Park is home to more tha 300,000 people, most of whom are impoverished. The Nehemiah Project is a joint venture between the Ivory Park community and Calvary Methodist Church in a neighboring, middle-class suburb. The project takes inspiration form Nehemiah, who set about rebuilding the broken walls of Jerusalem when the Israelites returned from exile. Hobson's goal is to sell 1,000 candles per year and raise enough to provide a year's employment for 12 workers who have no other source of income and who each support as many as 10 other people. Unemployment in Ivory Park is more than 70 percent. HISTORY OF THE CANDLE - During the latter years of apartheid rule in South Africa, Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg created a candle encircled in barbed wire, modeled after the symbol for the global human rights organization, Amnesty International. Each week, during worship services, members of Central Church lit the candle and listed the names of people who had been harassed, wounded, imprisoned, tortured or killed the previous week for protesting their nation's policy of racial separation. As they lit the candle, they read a passage from John 1: For the Light has come into the world and the darkness has never overcome it. As the names were listed, church members rededicated themselves to the cause of justice and to our God, who was already undoing apartheid. Then-government leader P.W. Botha banned Central Methodist Church's worship services from the radio and TV broadcasts because the congregation refused to skip the readings in services. CANDLE STILL A SYMBOL OF STRUGGLE AND TRIUMPH - The candle became a stunning symbol of hope and a sign of the struggle against apartheid. Today, Botha and apartheid are gone, but the candle remains as an emblem of the struggle for reconciliation and justice in the new South Africa and around the world. The Peace, Hope, and Justice Prayer Candles are offered as an inviation to learn from the people of South Africa, to join in prayer and the hard work of justice, forgiveness, peace, and reconcilation, and to trust in the God whose light continues to splinter the darkness. HOBSON UNITED METHODIST CHURCH - led by pastor V.H. "Sonnye" Dixon, is a reconciling, interracial congregation in Nashville, TN, which is committed ot ministries with the poor and other people pushed to the society's margins. As partners in supporting the Nehemiah Project, we invite our members, friends, and partern churches to support South African artisans by buying candles for yourselves or as gifts for your church, firends, and family members. Light your candles daily and celebrate the light of Christ, which continues to splinter the darkness and invites us to be light in the world. Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, or Lent are wonderful times to introduce this project. Each holder is signed by the candlemaker and includes the story of the candle. CANDLE DIMENSIONS - The candle with holder is approximately 6.5" x 3.5". Mounted on a wooden base and centered inside a plastic tube, the wax candle itself is surrounded by a barbed wire tower. [Caution: When lighting the candle, make sure the plastic casing does not ignite, either remove the casing or use a nail (included) to push the candle above the rim of the casing before lighting.] TO BECOME A SPONSORING CONGREGATION - Youth groups, mission teams, men's and women's groups or whole congregations are invited to join us by becoming a sponsoring partner, like Hobson, in this community-based, economic development project. For more information - or if you have other questions - contact the Rev. Janet Wolf, at 615.297.8764, or email jlwolf@comcast.net.
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