A Peace Pole is a hand-crafted monument that displays the message and prayer: “May Peace Prevail on
Earth” in a few languages.
There are tens of thousands of Peace Poles in 180 countries all over the world dedicated as monuments to
peace. They serve as constant reminders for us to visualise and pray for world peace.
In 2004, a former Albany Bahá’i pioneer, the late Ruth Bradley, by then resident in England, informed
the Albany Bahá’i Community, of the Peace Pole Project – an international peace movement that originated
in Japan in 1955 following the horrors of the Second World War. The Albany Bahá’i Community gave its
full support to this project. One reason for their support was because a Peace Pole strongly echoes
‘Abdu‟l-Bahá‟s counsel that “when a thought of war comes, oppose it by a stronger thought of peace. A
thought of hatred must be destroyed by a more powerful thought of love.”
The Peace Pole was a gift to the people of Albany from the Bahá’í community. It was unveiled by the
Mayor of Albany in March 2011 as part of the Harmony Day celebrations.
Here are a few photos from that occasion: