Photo: Irena Zvonar/Ina Moment
The Glastonbury Unity Candle and the Silent Minute for Peace, every evening at 9pm GMT
There is no power on earth that can withstand the united cooperation on spiritual levels
of men & women of goodwill everywhere.
Wellesley Tudor-Pole OBE (23 April 1884 – 13 September 1968)
of men & women of goodwill everywhere.
Wellesley Tudor-Pole OBE (23 April 1884 – 13 September 1968)
Join our Unity Candle Ambassadors live, streaming 20.55 - 21.10 GMT on The Glastonbury Unity Candle Facebook page. If you 'like' the page, you will a notification when we go live.
On the 23rd of March 2020, a stay-at-home order was issued to the UK, and all social contact was to cease. On that evening, the Glastonbury Unity Candle was lit in a livestream to hold the Silent Minute of Peace at 9pm. Its purpose was to offer companionship, healing, and connection at a time when it was felt it might be needed. To this day, volunteers continue to hold this space for people to join and hold peace in their hearts. In these dark and difficult times, people gather from all around the world and share their own peaceful messages of support.
On the 23rd of March 2020, a stay-at-home order was issued to the UK, and all social contact was to cease. On that evening, the Glastonbury Unity Candle was lit in a livestream to hold the Silent Minute of Peace at 9pm. Its purpose was to offer companionship, healing, and connection at a time when it was felt it might be needed. To this day, volunteers continue to hold this space for people to join and hold peace in their hearts. In these dark and difficult times, people gather from all around the world and share their own peaceful messages of support.
Our volunteer Unity Candle ambassadors are not only in Glastonbury and surrounding villages The live-stream also comes from Greenbelt, Maryland, Falls City, Oregon, the south-east of England, the Midlands, and Wales. None of us are 'professionals', each presents with a very different style, we are there simply to offer companionship and comfort, in a space where we can feel united, no matter our differences or where in the world we are.
The Silent Minute
The original Big Ben Silent Minute was a peace prayer initiated by Wellesley Tudor Pole, a major in the British Army and the founder of the Chalice Well Trust, right here in Glastonbury. Every day at noon, a bell is chimed in Chalice Well Gardens to remind us of the Silent Minute and the peace that can be drawn from it. Tudor Pole’s vision was for people to unite in meditation, prayer, or focus (each according to their own belief) and consciously will for “peace to prevail”.
During World War II, all over Britain and the Commonwealth, millions of people joined together every evening at 9.00pm just before the news, to the chimes of Big Ben, to pray for peace.
In the dark days of war the Silent Minute became a vast network of Light and Hope in the hearts of all people of goodwill. It had the blessing of King George VI, Sir Winston Churchill and his Parliamentary Cabinet, and it was also recognised by the US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Silent Minute was observed on land, at sea, on the battlefields, in air raid shelters and in hospitals. With Churchill’s support the BBC, on Sunday, 10th November 1940, began to play the chimes of Big Ben every evening at 9pm, on the radio, as a signal for the Silent Minute to begin.
During World War II, all over Britain and the Commonwealth, millions of people joined together every evening at 9.00pm just before the news, to the chimes of Big Ben, to pray for peace.
In the dark days of war the Silent Minute became a vast network of Light and Hope in the hearts of all people of goodwill. It had the blessing of King George VI, Sir Winston Churchill and his Parliamentary Cabinet, and it was also recognised by the US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Silent Minute was observed on land, at sea, on the battlefields, in air raid shelters and in hospitals. With Churchill’s support the BBC, on Sunday, 10th November 1940, began to play the chimes of Big Ben every evening at 9pm, on the radio, as a signal for the Silent Minute to begin.
The Glastonbury Unity Candle
Photo: Irena Zvonar In 2009, Morgana West and Jamie Evans of Starchild, on behalf of the Pilgrim Reception Centre, explored the idea of creating candles that could be used to represent Glastonbury. In 2010, the first Unity Candle was lit in a simple ceremony involving the Pilgrim Reception volunteers.
The candles are made by Starchild, right here in the heart of Glastonbury. Each candle is charged with a unique infusion made with herbs, trees and flowers including the Glastonbury Thorn, and collected in tune with the cycles of the moon from various sites in and around Glastonbury.
Blue was chosen because there is a deep spiritual significance to it and is seen in many cultures and beliefs representing faith, devotion, peace, inner knowledge, love, tranquility and harmony.
The candles are made by Starchild, right here in the heart of Glastonbury. Each candle is charged with a unique infusion made with herbs, trees and flowers including the Glastonbury Thorn, and collected in tune with the cycles of the moon from various sites in and around Glastonbury.
Blue was chosen because there is a deep spiritual significance to it and is seen in many cultures and beliefs representing faith, devotion, peace, inner knowledge, love, tranquility and harmony.
Since then, the Candle has visited hundreds of events and, in its familiar lantern, has been taken to ceremonies and events of all kinds, attending churches, temples and sacred venues, weddings, anniversaries, christenings, funerals, talks, workshops, conferences, civic events, festivals and concerts. It also stands on the Glastonbury Town Council table every month, where, all members of the council and public are asked to stand and, following its lighting, observe a Minute’s Silence.
Each host lights it in a way that is appropriate to them, so they are personally and energetically engaged in the process of igniting not only the flame of the Candle, but their own inner flame and reminded that peace starts within.
Each host lights it in a way that is appropriate to them, so they are personally and energetically engaged in the process of igniting not only the flame of the Candle, but their own inner flame and reminded that peace starts within.
