A post-it note ‘Peace/Love Wall’ appeared in Peckham immediately after the recent riots in London… and it looked a lot like the prayer walls we’ve seen in Prayer Spaces in Schools over the last few years.

Others appeared in Brixton and Birmingham and Manchester and other places over the following days, and all were soon full of messages, prayers, expressions of pain and sadness, confusion and resistance… messages, more than anything, of hope.

According to the BBC News website, “Hundreds of people in Peckham have hit back at rioters with peaceful Post-it note messages of support for their community. A boarded-up shop-front targeted by looters in the London riots has been transformed into a declaration of “Why we love Peckham”.” (To see the zoomable, close-up photo of the Peckham Peace Wall, click here)

The messages included;

“Shed light on our world”

“Because God loves Peckham”

“If this is our future, God help us!”

“God +heart+ Peckham”

“It has always been a place for all people – let it still be that place”

“Stay safe. Good will win”

Interestingly, a few people have criticised and dismissed these peace/love walls as “embarrassing displays of emotional incontinence” and “pointless, meaningless“, etc. However, the quantity of the Post-it notes on these walls around the UK, and the messages of support added beneath the BBC articles reflecting on these walls suggests otherwise… that people, whatever their age or religious or cultural background, need the space and the permission to express how they feel.

We all feel angry sometimes. We all feel pain and disappointment, grief, fear, as well as hope, joy, gratitude, etc. These are all part of what makes us who we are, human beings. And we all need safe spaces to express these strong feelings. The new Prayer Space story from Gaynes School is a good example.

And God cares.

The Bible is full of prayers that are full of these kind of feelings… full of anger, fear, pain, disappointment. David’s Psalm-prayers for example. Even Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, just before he is captured and taken to be crucified.

The prayers of the Bible are not calm and considered, polite and formulaic. The prayers of the Bible are honest, full of raw human emotion, and God welcomes these kind of prayers. When Jesus’ friends ask him how to pray, he tells them, “don’t be tempted to role-play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage…” (Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 6) Just say it like it is. Or scribble it. Or scream it. Or beat your fists on the earth. Or wait in silence. You get the idea…

I know that God has read every Post-it note on the Peckham Peace/Love Wall. As well as the ones that people couldn’t even put into words.

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” (Peter’s first letter, chapter 5).

You can read more about Prayer Spaces In Schools here.