Click photo to enlarge
Pat Cummings of Walnut Creek photographs her husband Forrest Cummings at the dedication ceremony for a Peace Pole at San Ramon Valley United Methodist Church in Alamo, Calif., on Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009. The hexagon-shaped aluminum pole has the words "May Peace Prevail on Earth" in 12 languages.There are more than 200,000 throughout the world. San Ramon Boy Scout Justin Koos created the rock garden and planted the pole as his Eagle Scout project. Lonnie Bristow and the Martin Luther King Peacemakers raised the funds for the project. (Jim Stevens/Staff)

ALAMO — A Peace Pole, part of a worldwide movement against war, has been planted in a peace garden at San Ramon Valley United Methodist Church.

The 8-foot aluminum pole reads: "May peace prevail on Earth" in a dozen languages, and was installed along with a garden for mediation, said Lonnie Bristow, a parishioner and Walnut Creek resident.

Thousands of similar poles are planted around the world.

Bristow said the idea started with a group of church members that honors the work of Martin Luther King Jr. on his birthday each year. They learned of the World Peace Prayer Society's Peace Pole Project. Bristow said other locations with Peace Poles include the Sphinx in Egypt and downtown Danville, near the Museum of the San Ramon Valley.

Bristow said after coming with the idea they learned that church member and high school senior Justin Koos was planning a meditation garden at the church to earn his Eagle Scout rank in the Boy Scouts of America.

The World Peace Prayer Society was started by the late Masahisa Goi, a Japanese man who dedicated his life to humanity, global peace and harmony after seeing the aftermath of World War II and the United States' bombing of Hiroshima, according to the group's Web site. He authored the prayer "May peace prevail on Earth."

The idea of putting the phrase on poles started gaining popularity in 1976, which was the beginnings of the society's Peace Pole Project. More than 100,000 poles

Advertisement
have been planted in more than 190 countries, according to the group. They are on every continent.

Bristow said the poles can be big or small enough to sit on a desk, and that those buying them can choose which languages are included. The languages on the one at his church are in Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Korean and Spanish, he said. He hopes by placing them it will spread the message of peace. He has started talking to Grandparents for Peace, a group which holds a weekly vigil at the Walnut Creek retirement community of Rossmoor, about getting a pole in that community.

"We're tired of seeing our young men get killed or coming home broken," said Bristow.

Reach Eric Louie at 925-847-2123