| THE ARTIST Stephen Raw (left) co-ordinated it, but about 300 people from around Old Trafford, Manchester, came to paint the word “Peace” in the 20 or so different languages and scripts of the very mixed community. The paintings were reproduced on to a weatherproof fabric, and they now hang as a 17-metre banner on the tower of St John’s, which is celebrating its centenary this year.
People of all ages were involved, says the Revd John Hughes (right), and they included everyone from asylum-seekers to the Mayor of Trafford, Councillor Bernard Sharp, who contributed a panel during one of the painting workshops. He added the word “Shalom”, in recognition of his Jewish heritage.
It was the Mayor who came, together with Professor Awadalla Youssef from the large Muslim community, when the banner was celebrated for the first time. He also added a plant to the Garden of Remembering that has been created from a neglected piece of land at the west end of the church.
The church has a faculty to keep the banner in place for up to a year, Mr Hughes tells me, and the intention is that it should “stimulate conversation, so that we can hopefully begin to have discussions about where there isn’t peace — in Old Trafford, as well as around the world”.
Image: OLD TRAFFORD NEWS
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