A week for remembering...

9 August 1945 - Nagasaki was devastated by an atom bomb.
The radius of total destruction was about 1.6 km (1 mile), followed by fires across the northern portion of the city to 3.2 km (2 miles) south of the bomb.





the shadow of nuclear weapons still hangs over us - the nuclear arsenals are not yet being reduced, the vision of the prophet Isaiah of a time when swords will be turned into ploughshares remains unfulfilled, and the Christian churches remain deaf to the call of Jesus, Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.

We remain caught up in arguments conducted with little charity and verbal violence about our definitions of who should be ruled in and out of the church while the fundamental claims of Jesus' call to discipleship seem to be ignored.

A week too to remember Alexander Solzhenitsyn - A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich stands as a powerful account of the struggle to be human in a totalitarian society.