Pax
The oldest promise of repair standeth at the head of every gathering: swords laid down, spears turned to pruninghooks, and war unlearned at the last.
The Verse
Hear it as it was given to the prophet, and read it slowly, for it is the cornerstone of this temple and the first promise of the world's repair.
And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
ISAIAH 2:4
Read it again before thou goest, and carry the last clause with thee: neither shall they learn war any more.
The Charge of Peace
Yet the verse is not a lullaby; it is the charge of the stewardship of Peace. We are bidden to refuse the systems of war, the engines and economies that feast upon enmity, and to become agents of a diplomatic and lasting peace. Where the sword is worshipped, speak against it. Where peace is mocked as weakness, answer that the plow is stronger than the blade, and that the pruninghook feedeth cities.
The full charge of the stewardship standeth in the four doors of the Reparare.
The Opening of Every Common Session
When the household gathereth, this verse goeth first. It is read aloud by one voice, or carried around the room from mouth to mouth, and all stand while it is spoken; after it, a moment of silence is kept before any other word. Let it be the first thing said among you, above argument and above business, and the meeting shall take its tone from the promise it began with.
The rule is kept in the Oratio Communis: every communal session openeth with the foundational mission from Isaiah 2:4.
The work of the covenant continueth in the Common Prayer, the Prayers, Blessings, and Declarations, and It Is Upon Us to Repair the World. The wing's threshold telleth of them all.