WCC news: Lanterns for Peace” reflections remember victims of atomic bombings

Each year, the Lanterns for Peace global campaign, on 6 and 9 August, remembers the victims of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The commemoration is not only a moment of mourning, but a genuine call to conscience. One of the 22 lanterns sent from the city of Hiroshima to Geneva. Photo: Marianne Ejdersten/WCC 7 August 2026 In Geneva, an interfaith Lanterns for Peace ceremony was held 6 August at Chapelle Notre-Dame, organized by Pax Christi in Switzerland and the Interreligious Platform in Geneva. The Lanterns for Peace campaign was developed by Pax Christi International and the Hiroshima Coventry Club (Touro Project). Inspired by the lantern ceremonies held each year in Hiroshima, the campaign invites communities around the world to organise local commemorative events using traditional lanterns as symbols of remembrance, peace, hope, and nuclear disarmament. Beacons of hope “The Lanterns for Peace floated each 6 August on the river in Hiroshima are individual beacons of compassion and hope,” said Jonathan Frerichs, Pax Christi International representative for disarmament, UN Geneva. “Eighty-one years into the nuclear age, these lanterns are also a reminder that nuclear weapons are still everyone’s problem. Abolishing them will require sustained and collective actions, small and big.” A message from the mayor of Hiroshima, Kazumi Matsui, was read to those gathered.  He lamented that, in some countries, policymakers are reinforcing the notion that nuclear weapons are essential for national defense. “They threaten to undermine the peace-building frameworks so many have tirelessly worked to construct,” he said. “Instead, we must work even harder to build civil society consensus for the abolition of nuclear weapons.” The city of Hiroshima sent thousands of lanterns across the world, 22 of which arrived in Geneva, the City of Peace, and the headquarters of the United Nations. They were accompanied by messages prepared by young citizens of Hiroshima, and will now be distributed to various parts of Geneva and to the wider world with these messages of peace. Rev. Maurice Gardiol, president of the Interreligious Platform in Geneva. Photo: Marianne Ejdersten/WCC Hibakusha memories Letters from hibakusha were also read aloud during the ceremony.  “The next moment I felt a white flash as I ran for an air raid shelter,” reads one of the letters. “When I reached the shelter, it was already crowded with people.” Another letter was from a hibakusha who was 11 years old when the atomic bomb hit. “I believe that it is my mission to share about the sad, pointless deaths of my parents,” the letter reads.  Brief reflections were offered by Rev. Maurice Gardiol, president of the Interreligious Platform in Geneva; Bhante Dhannike, from Geneva International Buddhist Center; and Marianne Ejdersten, who represented the World Council of Churches (WCC). Gardiol reflected on the kind of light that the peace lanterns carry. “Not a blinding light like that of a bomb, which only precedes darkness and tears, but the fragile light of a candle that lifts our souls and leads us toward the joy of peace,” he said. “Today, in remembrance of the tragedy of August 6, 1945, we are called upon to reject all forms of violence and to refrain from justifying them in our words, including our religious ones.”  “I will never forget my visit to Hiroshima during the 60th anniversary of the bombing,” said Dhannike. “Many people were in tears as they remembered their loved ones and all those who had lost their lives.” Dhannike added the lighting of the lanterns is such a meaningful act. “They symbolize light and hope,” he said. “From a Buddhist perspective, lighting a lantern is a sacred act of remembrance.” Ejdersten, WCC director of communication, honored the memory of those who lost their lives and paid tribute to the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “Let us never forget! Let us never repeat! Let us protect lives,” she said. “Let us always remember Hiroshima. Nagasaki.”  She urged people to speak out of love for the world and in obedience to the God of all life. “Churches are not alone in upholding the sanctity of life,” she said. “Because we do not want nuclear weapons used against us, our nation cannot use nuclear weapons against others.” Yet instead of progress there is a major crisis, Ejdersten noted.  “On the question of morality, all people of faith, must prevail upon governments until they recognize the incontrovertible immorality of nuclear weapons,” she said. Photo gallery Lanterns for Peace: from Hiroshima to the World Learn more about the WCC work on arms control and disarmament  See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa. Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland