School flags peace hopes

Published: 20 July 2003

St Joseph's principal Derek MacLean is joined by students and their Tibetan peace prayer flags

A TIBETAN peace prayer flag parade will be the highlight of the annual fair at St Joseph's Primary School, Bardon this weekend.

International events had exposed children to unrest, inhumanity and atrocity during the last two years, so St Joseph's teachers and students have chosen 'to embrace the essential quest for peace and love in a more tangible way'.

In the weeks leading up to the fair they have made and decorated Tibetan peace prayer flags similar to ones placed outside homes, places of worship or on mountain tops by Tibetan Buddhists for hundreds of years.

The flags are believed to promote peace, compassion, strength, wisdom, good fortune and good health and are hung outdoors so that, as they move in the wind, the prayers and messages written on them are set free, purifying the air and creating a positive effect on the universe.

Principal, Derek MacLean, said that he and the teaching staff at St Joseph's were thrilled by the students' enthusiasm for the peace prayer project.

'It has encouraged the children to think about the kind of values that are important and given them a sense that their prayers are real and can make a real difference,' Mr MacLean said.

'And that's a belief that will be reinforced every time they see their flags fluttering in the breeze,' he said.