A remote mission school in northeastern Thailand has made the annual observance of peace an opportunity to teach students about reconciliation, care for creation, and their connection to the wider world.
St. John’s School in Thabom, run by the Religious of the Assumption, serves a multifaith student body and teaching staff. Its annual peace activities include prayer, reflection, discussions on environmental stewardship, and activities introducing students to different countries and cultures.
The school’s observance is tied to the International Day of Peace, established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1981 and formally designated in 2001 to be observed annually on Sept. 21.
Sister Maria Deanna Combong, RA, the school superior, told LiCAS News that the mission school began in 2002 with an educational vision that includes building a more just and peaceful society.
“We started St. John’s School-Thabom in 2002. Our vocation as educators—‘to shape people and the society to come, in partnership with God’—faces challenges to which we need to respond,” she said.
The religious sister said one such challenge is shaping a society with more justice, more humanity, and more solidarity.
“Our responses include fostering a ‘culture of peace’ in thoughts, mentalities, and attitudes: rejecting violence, educating for responsibility, respecting human dignity, prioritizing family values, helping young people discover meaning and committing to societal transformation, and caring for our environment, our ‘common home’,” she said.
The school held its first joint prayer assembly for world peace on Sept. 11, 2002, the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks in the United States. The event became the beginning of an annual school tradition.
“Students were made aware of belonging to a bigger world while living in a remote village,” Sister Deanna said.
“From that year on, World Peace Day became an important school tradition every September, with themes adapting to current global realities,” she added.
This year, the school community linked its peace observance with the Season of Creation, which runs from Sept. 1, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, to Oct. 4, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi.
The Assumption Sisters, teachers, staff, and students also marked the 800th anniversary of key milestones in the life of St. Francis of Assisi by focusing on two aspects of his legacy: care for creation and becoming instruments of peace.
The observance began with a paraliturgy and prayers of gratitude for creation, particularly water and its role in sustaining life. The community also prayed for repentance and pardon over the devastation caused by war, including lives cut short, families torn apart, and damage to the earth.
Students later joined group discussions on environmental stewardship and reflected on the importance of water to daily survival, food preparation, and ecosystems.
Songs including “Make Me a Channel of Your Peace,” sung in Thai and English, and “Let There Be Peace on Earth” were also part of the program.
The school’s peace observance included activities designed to introduce students to other countries. Students researched assigned nations, prepared national flags, and joined a procession wearing traditional attire representing different countries.
After a period of prayerful silence, the students placed their flags on a world map according to continent. The activities continued in the afternoon with snack booths managed by teachers and community gatherings.
This year’s program also included a “Walk for Peace,” inspired by the prayerful public witness of Buddhist monks in the United States earlier this year.
Students, teachers, and the Assumption Sisters walked silently around the school grounds while reflecting on their individual roles in promoting peace.
“Silence and meditation make us focus on the present, experience serenity and peace of heart, and prepare us to listen and communicate better with others,” one student said. “It makes us realize that world peace begins in each person’s heart.”
At the end of the program, students wrote personal commitments on small sheets of paper and placed them on a collective “Peace Wall.”
Their pledges included listening with empathy, practicing forgiveness and reconciliation, showing compassion, respecting the dignity of every person, protecting the environment, saving water, planting trees, seeking dialogue, and fostering unity within their families.
The activities reflected an observance that the school has sustained for more than two decades, connecting students in a remote Thai village with questions of peace, conflict, environmental care, and responsibility toward others.
