Many of the elder generations will remember everything stopping for 1 minute at 11am on 11th November each year to commemorate the end of the war and to remind us that it should never happen again. Over the years this has been watered down to the nearest Sunday and the essence of the energy raised has been lost.
During the First World War, while waiting to go into battle on a hill overlooking Jerusalem the idea for the future Silent Minute observance was seeded by Wellesley Tudor Pole. In 1940 he acted on this idea working with the Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the Government to instigate the Big Ben Silent Minute at 9pm each evening on the BBC.
Within a year 10 million people were observing the minute silence worldwide. This was moved to 1 minutes silence on the 11th day of the 11th Month of the 11th minute for Armistice at the end of the wars.
When the BBC dropped the observance in 1964 Wellesly Tudor Pole worked closely with Sir George Trevelyan to launch the Lamplighter Movement. In 1959 he had secured the Well, gardens and surrounding land of the Chalice Well in a Trust for perpetuity as a sanctuary and place of peace and healing.
~ ~ ~
“There is no power on earth that can withstand the united cooperation on spiritual levels of men and women of goodwill everywhere. It is for this reason that the continued and widespread observance of the Silent Minute is of such vital importance in the interest of human welfare.” Wellesley Tudor Pole 1960
The above quote has recently been changed slightly as many people of the world strive for peace and the healing of the Earth:
There is no power on earth that can withstand the united cooperation on spiritual levels of men and women of goodwill everywhere. It is for this reason that the continued and widespread observance of the Silent Minute is of such vital importance in the interest of Peace and the healing of Earth and all its living creatures.
The connection of many souls across the world of all faiths who feel the same will meet for 1 minute 3 times a day if possible – 3pm, 6pm and 9pm where they will follow this simple action.
- A moment of silence
- A moment of reflection
- A moment of Inner peace
In 2015 the Chalice Well Press published ‘The Light upon the Path’, selected unpublished writings of WTP. In the early 1960’s, among a flurry of publishing, he produced a booklet called ‘God is Love’ (co-sponsored by the Big Ben Silent Minute and the Chalice Well Trust) in which he wrote: ‘The more love we reflect and share with one another, the greater will be the supply available to us: a supply that is infinite, boundless, never failing and eternal. When the truth of this realisation is recognised and utilised we shall be on the first lap of the road leading to the arrival of “Heaven on Earth.”’
Moonbramble
quotes from www.albion.org.uk/historical-albion/wellesley-tudor-pole-1884-1968/