BROOKINGS – You can see the peace pole in the garden of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church – at the corner of Sixth Street and Eighth Avenue. The Brookings chapter of Pax Christi together with other members of the community planted and dedicated the pole on Oct. 16.

The pole is an eight-foot cedar beam. On it this prayer is inscribed, “May peace prevail on earth.” The languages in which the inscription appears – Arabic, English, Lakota and Spanish – reflect some of the diversity in the Brookings community.

The prayer comes from the World Peace Prayer Society, founded in Japan in 1955, as a response to the nuclear bombing of that country in the Second World War. The prayer invites all people to think, speak and act in the spirit of peace.

Pax Christi is an international Catholic movement founded in France in 1945, as a response to the violence between that country and Germany in the Second World War. The movement’s members work for peace, respect for human rights, justice and reconciliation.

Peace poles have been planted in more than 200 countries. At the ceremony in Brookings, the peace pole was blessed and the peace prayer was announced in the four languages inscribed on the pole. Brookings Pax Christi’s coordinator is Susan Thompson (605-941-7030).