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Guildford parishioner and former diocesan teacher, John Williams, has been awarded the Pax Christi 2021 Peace Award

As a teacher in St Wilfrid's School, Crawley, then as Head of RE and subsequently Deputy Head at St Peter's in Guildford to his role in the Westminster Diocesan Education Advisory Team, John [Williams] has championed the role of peace education and the social teaching of the church within Catholic schools. In all of this, he has been a close partner of Pax Christi and has given great support to successive Peace Education workers...

Within his parish Justice & Peace Group in Guildford John has helped to organise prayer vigils and memorial services including around the time of Remembrance and the 2014 WWI commemorations in particular. John continues to be valued Trustee of the Christian Peace Education Fund.

John said that he was accepting the award on behalf of all teachers who live peace through their skills in conflict resolution and in the way they present themselves to students. He reflected on the power of international visits, to schools and communities in Bethlehem in 2009 and to Malta in 2012, where he visited a church-based refugee project, as life-expanding experiences.

©Pat Gaffney ICN (abridged)