Silent but not silenced on threshold of hell - DSEI Arms Fair

Sr Katrina Alton, National Chaplain to Pax Christi England and Wales gave this reflection on Monday evening, at the start of the Silent Vigil at the DSEI Arms Fair.

Friends

Tonight we stand silent, but not silenced, on the threshold of hell - because this is DSEI 2025 - Defence & Security Equipment International.

Behind the polished glass of the ExCeL Centre, men and women in suits are preparing to buy and sell the machinery of death. Tanks. Drones. Bombs. Tools of Empire. War games dressed up in contracts and cocktails.

They call it a "fair"-but there is nothing fair about it.

We gather here in silence because Jesus stood in silence before Pilate. Not because He had nothing to say, but because the truth had already been spoken. Love your enemies. Put away your sword. Blessed are the peacemakers. He didn't just preach it-He lived it, all the way to the cross.

Million-pound deals will be made here this week, while the crucified poor bleed in Gaza, in Yemen, in Sudan. And we, citizens of a nation profiting from that blood, are called not to look the other way.

Our silence tonight is a scream against the veil of respectability that hides the horror. We are here to tear it away, with prayer, with presence, with nonviolent resistance.

The world will say we are naïve. But we remember that the first Christians, unarmed and persecuted, changed the world without raising a sword. And we believe still, that the power of nonviolent Love, is stronger than the war machine.

So, we wait. We witness. We hold vigil as if at a tomb-because the arms trade is a culture of death. But we stand in hope, because as people of faith we know that tombs don't get the last word.

We hold this vigil for all victims of the arms trade. For the children buried under the rubble. For a world drunk on violence yet thirsting for justice and peace.

Let our silence speak what words cannot. Let our presence disturb the powers. Let our Love be more powerful than their weapons.

Together, let us now begin our Silent Vigil, and remember all victims of the arms trade.

Amen.