Because I believe that justice and peace are possible.
Despite the armed violence and warfare that rips the world,
despite the silent testimony of the dead,
despite the witness of the wounded,
despite the heartache of the displaced,
despite the silent cries of creation,
despite the devastation and the rubble,
I believe that justice and peace are possible.
Because I believe, 24 December will always include a playlist focused on the 1914 Christmas Truce. I recognize that my beliefs, statements, and actions my not make a significant difference, but I stand on my right to believe, speak, and act as I choose.
Snoopy’s Christmas – The Royal Guardsmen
Christmas Truce – Sabaton
Pipes of Peace – Paul McCartney
1914, the Carol of Christmas – Military Voices & Abby Scott, feat. Flt Lt Matt Little, the Raf Spitfire Choir & William Inscoe
Let the Truce Be Known – Orphaned Land
Christmas 1914 – John McDermott
It Could Happen Again – Colin Raye
All Together Now – The Farm
Christmas True of 1914 – Joyce Cooling
The Christmas True – Carol Dowgiallo & Bob Dowgiallo
Ode to the Christmas Truce of 1914 – Marshall Hattersley
Christmas Truce – Fenya
The Christmas Truce – Gloucester Cathedral Choir, Adrian Partington, Jonathan Hope, Sacha Fullerton, Jack Parry, Deryck Webb & Nicholas Perfect
Christmas in the Trenches – John McCutcheon
Silent Night/Stille Nacht – John McCutcheo
Tag Archives: Christmas Truce
24 December 2025 – Christmas Truce
Filed under Advent, Albuquerque, Christmas, Music, New Mexico, playlist
24 December 2023 – The Christmas Truce
No focused exercise.
The 1914 Christmas Truce.
Snoopy’s Christmas – The Royal Guardsmen
Christmas Truce – Sabaton
Pipes of Peace – Paul McCartney
1914, the Carol of Christmas – Military Voices & Abby Scott, feat. Flt Lt Matt Little, the RAF Spitfire Choir & William Inscoe
Let the Truce Be Known – Orphaned Land
Christmas 1914 – John McDermott
It Could Happen Again – Colin Raye
All Together Now – The Farm
Christmas True of 1914 – Joyce Cooling
The Christmas True – Carol Dowgiallo & Bob Dowgiallo
Ode to the Christmas Truce of 1914 – Marshall Hattersley
Christmas Truce – Fenya
The Christmas Truce – Gloucester Cathedral Choir, Adrian Partington, Jonathan Hope, Sacha Fullerton, Jack Parry, Deryck Webb & Nicholas Perfect
Christmas in the Trenches – John McCutcheon
Silent Night/Stille Nacht – John McCutcheon
Filed under Music, New Mexico, playlist
24 December 2022 – The Christmas Truce
Walking. Apartment.
The 1914 Christmas Truce.
Snoopy’s Christmas – The Royal Guardsmen
Christmas Truce – Sabaton
Pipes of Peace – Paul McCartney
1914, the Carol of Christmas – Military Voices & Abby Scott, feat. Flt Lt Matt Little, the Raf Spitfire Choir & William Inscoe
Let the Truce Be Known – Orphaned Land
Christmas 1914 – John McDermott
It Could Happen Again – Colin Raye
All Together Now – The Farm
Christmas True of 1914 – Joyce Cooling
The Christmas True – Carol Dowgiallo & Bob Dowgiallo
Ode to the Christmas Truce of 1914 – Marshall Hattersley
Christmas Truce – Fenya
The Christmas Truce – Gloucester Cathedral Choir, Adrian Partington, Jonathan Hope, Sacha Fullerton, Jack Parry, Deryck Webb & Nicholas Perfect
Christmas in the Trenches – John McCutcheon
Silent Night/Stille Nacht – John McCutcheon
Filed under Current Events, Exercise, Louisville, Music, playlist
Christmas Truce – Ukraine
If you are a faith leader, I invite you to join me in signing this call for a Christmas Truce in #Ukraine
If you do not consider yourself a faith leader, consider asking those you do view as faith leaders to join Dr. Cornel West, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Bp. William Barber & many more in calling for a Christmas Truce in #Ukraine!
As people of #faith and conscience, believing in the sanctity of all life on this planet, we call for a Christmas Truce in Ukraine. In the spirit of the truce that occurred in 1914 during the First World War, as roughly 100,000 German and British soldiers along the Western Front in World War I declared an unofficial #Christmas Truce and ceased hostilities for a short period.
We urge our government to take a leadership role in bringing the war in Ukraine to an end through supporting calls for a ceasefire and negotiated settlement, before the conflict results in a nuclear war that could devastate the world’s ecosystems and annihilate all of God’s creation.
We invite religious leaders or organizational/denominational leadership to add their voice to the Christmas Truce campaign by signing on here: https://docs.google.com/…/1FAIpQLSe5UKB1EoxgPC…/viewform
Filed under Advent, Current Events, Human Rights
To make real that possibility
One hundred years ago
In a war ravaged corner of the world
For a few moments
Short moments
Precious moments
Defiant moments
Sacred moments
Shooting stopped
As guns stood silent,
Warring men
Forced death to take
A brief hiatus as they
Dare to leave the trenches
And enter
No man’s land
Filled with mud and corpses
Wire and blood
And enter
No man’s land
Of peace and
Shared humanity
One hundred years later
We gather to remember,
Sing songs, eat cookies
And though we know the
Undeclared truce failed to hold,
We dare proclaim
Peace is possible
Possible in our cities
Possible in Syria
Possible in South Sudan
Possible in the DRC
Peace is possible
Though violence rages
Though hate shrivels human hearts
Though fear squeezes human souls
We dare proclaim
Peace is possible
And we recommit ourselves
To praying,
Working,
Living
To make real that possibility.
24 December 2014
Bells for Peace
Commemorating the Christmas Truce of World War I
Church of the Covenant
Cleveland, Ohio
Filed under Cleveland Heights, Current Events
Where I will be on Christmas Eve
This year will bring a different type of Christmas Eve. Here’s what is happening:
Soldiers in World War I impulsively laid down their weapons and sang carols together on the battlefield 100 years ago this Christmas Eve, December 24, 1914. In memory of this famous “Christmas Truce,” and in honor of those seeking peace throughout the world, the bells of University Circle’s carillon will join a global musical event by playing the carol best known to English- and German-speaking troops a century ago, “Silent Night,” this Christmas Eve, December 24, 2014, at 7:14 p.m., or 19:14 in military time. The McGaffin Carillon is located at 11205 Euclid Avenue, in the block between Severance Hall and MOCA Cleveland.
All are invited to bundle up and listen to this playing of the carol from the Church of the Covenant lawn and parking area and Case Western Reserve University’s north campus. Members of the Church of the Covenant Choir will lead singing of the carol afterward. From 7:30 to 8 p.m., University Circle Carillonneur George Leggiero will play a recital of other carols mentioned in soldiers’ diaries and letters about the experience. Enjoy cocoa and cookies from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
This is part of the project “Bells for Peace,” in which carillons throughout Europe, North America, Australia, and elsewhere will play “Silent Night” at 19:14 in their time zones. Leggiero’s 7:30 p.m. recital precedes an 8 p.m. prelude and carol sing and 8:30 p.m. candlelight service at the Church of the Covenant.
The Christmas Truce involved vast portions of the war’s Western Front, including German and Austro-Hungarian troops with British, French, Belgian, and Russian forces. Soldiers on both sides observed an impromtu ceasefire, tentatively emerging from their trenches, singing carols, trading gifts from their care packages, and wishing one another well in the other’s language as best they could, with at least one Christmas day makeshift soccer game documented. Bells for Peace is part of the larger Christmas Truce and Flanders Peace Field Project, whose center is the little city of Messines, Belgium, near where a soccer game took place.
See you along the Trail.
Filed under Advent, Cleveland Heights, Current Events
Along the Graybeard Trail 