Dedication Ceremonies
Ceremonies, pg.2 | Ceremonies, pg. 3
This ceremony was at the rural retreat of The Unity Center in San Diego, California.
Metal peace poles are shipped in wooden crates. They used theirs to hide their peace pole. They removed one end and one side from the crate so that they could slide it over the standing peace pole. Then covered it with a drape so that it would be a surprise for the 450 people who came.
They met down a trail out of sight of the peace pole and the labyrinth that secretly had been built around it. They were walked to its location where a guitar-playing-
singer with a cordless mic directed them into a circle around the perimeter of the labyrinth. Everyone held hands. After a few words had been sung and spoken, they were invited to move closer. The drape and the box were removed.
Around the top was an embroidery ring to which were tied lengths of ribbon. There was one ribbon for each of the 33 translations, one for the images of the earth on the pole and one for the animal tracks around the bottom. 35 ribbons dangled down.
Each was coiled with a rubber band before hitting the ground. Each time the name of a translation was spoken a rubber band was removed. As the translation was read, the ribbon was unrolled as it was passed over the heads of the crowd. During this a few words were said about the language and the people who spoke it and their being one with all of the people in the world. Then there were thirty seconds of silence before doing the same thing for the next language.
In the end the ribbons attached to the peace pole at one end and held aloft by the crowd out to the other end united all the people at the ceremony with all the languages and, in a way, all the people in the world.
