The 21st edition of the interreligious and citizen march for peace took place this Wednesday, December 18 between Générac and Saint-Gilles.
“During the first march, there were ten of us“, remembers Noëlle Morcillo, president of the Accueil et Traditions Saint-Gilles Saint-Jacques association. This Wednesday, December 18, 2024, around fifty people participated in this gathering for peace, some coming from far away. “We come from Fréjus and Saint-Raphaëlindicated Pierre-Alain, 82 years old, beckoning to these eleven comrades members of the association Les Amis de Saint-Jacques Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. We are used to walking, but for peace, the symbolism is stronger.“
On the square in front of the Générac church, the marchers, some of whom were equipped with lanterns, read the prayer proposed as part of the Christian scout event the Light of Peace in Bethlehem which takes place every year during the Advent period. It ends like this: “Through my promise, I commit to participating in the construction of a more just, fraternal and peaceful world.“Max, 71 years old, has been accompanying his wife for 10 years.”It is both a spiritual and exchange process that is all the more important in the current context.
S.MaThis march brings together Catholics, Muslims and Protestants. An important meeting, necessary to get to know each other better, “guided by light, it’s all the more moving after dark
“, underlined Alexandre, 44 years old. It was a route of around ten kilometers which awaited the walkers, punctuated by a stop at the Saint-Gilles fire station, at the stadium before a stop at the Temple, at the Abbey and the Mosque And finally, to end this beautiful day, an interreligious meal where dozens of people share the soup brought by the Muslims, the fougasse of the Christians and the fruits of the Protestants.*Lit in the Nativity Grotto in Bethlehem, this light is brought back to Vienna in Austria by Christian scouts before being transmitted from hand to hand throughout Europe. And even as far as the Gard where this symbol of peace has been disseminated for 21 years by the association “Accueil et Traditions St Gilles/St Jacques”
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