Please Register Below
Scroll RH / LH to view photos from a previous ‘Peace Gardening Bee’ in Summer 2024 involving Temple Friends, WCIA staff and trustees, and community volunteers.
August 6 every year is commemorated as Hiroshima Day, remembering thre many tens of thousands killed when the world’s first atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States at the closew of World War Two.
2025 marks the 80th Anniversary of Hiroshima Day, for which WCIA alongside partners SGI UK, CND Cymru and others hope to plant a special memorial tree in Wales’ National Garden of Peace. Further details will be confirmed as the date approaches, but it is likely that a short ceremony and public event will complement the ‘normal routine’ of the monthly Temple Friends gatherings – timings TBC.
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- The blossoming Oleander Tree is the international flower of Hiroshima
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- The Hiroshima Memorial in Japan
Monthly Temple Friends Gatherings
The Temple Friends group hold voluntary gatherings on a monthly basis to help maintain and spruce up Wales’ National Garden of Peace, and enjoy some creative conversations helping to shape ideas for events, activities and projects involving local communities with the Temple of Peace, and Wales-wide.
Friends do not need to be ‘signed up’ members – new faces and hands are always welcome! – and you may join for as long or short as your availability allows. Session are usually informal but with the following general structure:
15.00 – Meet in Temple of Peace Reception, and / or the Peace Garden, to undertake monthly maintenance and tidying of the National Garden of Peace and its memorials. Tasks are wide ranging and mostly practical: weeding, raking, planting, pruning, cleaning / fixing memorials, installing replacements, replacing flags, installing, varnishing / painting and securing benches and tables, developing improved public information, etc.
16.30-17.00 – we usually wrap up work in the garden and come inside for tea & cake / refreshments
17-18.00 – ‘Creative Conversations‘ usually take a theme of the Temple’s contemporary work on peace (often introduced wirth a brief ‘scene setting’), and inviting freeflowing, creative and partipatory discussions. In early 2025 these have included publicising & expanding community events, developing creative arts projects & residencies, restarting supporter e-newsletters, planning peace memorial ceremonies for Srebrenica and Hiroshima Days, and archive workshops.
We’d be grateful if you could register via the link below so we have an idea of who will be coming. Temple Friends and volunteers / supporters in the widest sense are most welcome (such as members from groups who have memorials in the Peace Garden), and WCIA staff will be attending to support.