By Carol Burns, Pax Christi in the Leeds Diocese
An Ash Wednesday service will be held on Wednesday 18th February 2026 12.30 pm at Dortmund Square in central Leeds.
Since 1982, Christians have assembled on Ash Wednesday at the Ministry of Defence to pray for peace and a conversion of hearts and minds away from nuclear war preparations, the destruction caused by nuclear testing and the wasted resources that are invested in nuclear weapons and in all weapons.
Over those years services have been held in Liverpool and Glasgow and people from peace groups from different parts of the country have travelled to London.
For a second year, the Leeds Pax Christi group are organising a prayer service in Leeds.
Ash Wednesday is the beginning of a time of repentance in the Church calendar, and we will be praying for all those involved in nuclear war preparations to repent and have a change of heart.
We also recognise that we can all do more to speak out about nuclear war preparations and to prayer to have the courage to carry on with our opposition. Pope Leo in his Peace Sunday message has preached on the theme ‘an unarmed and disarming peace’ (https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news/54061). Not since the end of the Cold War has the world seemed more dangerous, yet Pope Leo stresses how Christians take a different approach to building peace and stresses our responsibility.
Quoting Pope John 23rd from Pacem in Terris
‘Everyone must realise, that unless this process of disarmament be thorough going and complete, and reach people’s very souls it is impossible to stop the arms trade or reduce armaments or, and this is the main thing, to abolish them entirely. Everyone must surely cooperate in the effort to banish fear and the anxious expectation of war from our minds. But this requires that the fundamental principles on which peace is based in today’s world be replaced by an altogether different one, namely the realisation that true and lasting peace among nations cannot consist in the possession of an equal supply of armaments but on mutual trust’.
All are welcome to join us on Wednesday February 18th at 12.30 pm
For more information contact Carol.burns@yahoo.co.uk