Today, Pax Christi USA is thrilled to unveil a special 50th anniversary-themed logo/graphic that incorporates our traditional rose and barbed wire logo and our theme for our 50th anniversary year, “Weaving Threads of Peace for 50 Years”. Here it is:
Our anniversary year theme, Weaving Threads of Peace for 50 Years, invites us to reflect on the intricate tapestry of peace being woven by many: peacemakers who have energized our grassroots movement for decades, newer members, and the God of Peace and Justice who calls us to this work.
The open circle of threads around our rose and barbed wire logo symbolize the years of intersectional prayer, study, and action on issues including nuclear disarmament, anti-death penalty, economic justice, climate justice, and the many other issues with which our members are engaged through the lenses of anti-racism and nonviolence. The circle is intentionally left open with the bottom threads reaching out to continue the prophetic work that began in 1972.
Every individual member who has discovered peace in their own heart and then found ways to share this gift with others has woven a unique thread into the generational cloth. The strength of the fabric has become stronger as each individual has brought their own uniqueness, resulting in a multi-cultural and multi-faceted tapestry that makes up our local groups and regional and state chapters.
Building, sharing, and growing peace with justice all require tending: being unceasing in our commitments and re-committing ourselves to the vow of nonviolence and being open and welcoming to others to join the movement tends to the future growth. There have been moments in our history that we ask for reconciliation and healing, and that weaving hopes to repair. We recall Bryan Massingale’s 2021 Teacher of Peace address, which named white nationalism as the greatest threat to peace. The loose threads, frayed and unfinished, call to mind the conscious attempt to address and heal America’s original sin of racism.
Taking Pope Francis’s invitation in Let Us Dream, we recognize that the Spirit is always inviting us to new models of peace with justice. May we be open to reimagining and adding new threads as our movement grows this year and into the future.
Pax Christi, the Peace of Christ, can be found in the rich patterns formed whenever two or more threads are woven together in the name of Love for one another and for all of creation. The work is unfinished and unfolding, and we look forward to honoring the legacy of our first fifty years as we continue to weave our way into the next fifty.
Created by graphic artist Diann Cage in collaboration with our 50th Anniversary Working Group, you’ll find us using this graphic in association with many of our events and activities throughout the year, on t-shirts and other 50th anniversary items soon to be available, on our new 50th anniversary prayer card (to be included in the next membership mailing) and elsewhere!
Complimenting this special 50th anniversary-themed logo/graphic, you’ll also see us using a more compact, simpler logo in various color schemes, built around the logo created in the mid-nineties and adding text that signifies the year of our founding and our 50 years of existence.
Find more about the 50th anniversary year and our plans at this link.