Lamp by lamp, the light of the Christmas season spread across Indiana and the U.S.
The flame originated at the birthplace of Jesus Christ, before moving to Austria, New York and finally Franklin. To see it flicker and burn with a steady illumination has helped set a warm tone on the holiday.
“It’s wonderful to be able to bring a piece of Bethlehem home,” said Lisa Wallace, whose children helped bring the flame to Franklin. “We still have ours burning in a lamp on our kitchen table.”
The Peace Light, a symbolic fire taken from the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Israel, made its way through Johnson County this week. Venture Crew 228, a local group affiliated with the Boy Scouts, helped ferry the flame here, where it has been distributed among local residents and churches in oil lamps.
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The goal is to bring charity, peace and unity to communities throughout the world.
“For us, this is something unique for Scouts. They carry it from place to place in Europe, and it’s neat to be part of that chain,” said Keith Karnes, a leader of Venture Crew 228. “Being a part of that chain of world Scouting and having that connection with Scouts from all over is a really cool thing.”
The Peace Light is a campaign that originated in Austria in 1986. That year, the Austrian Broadcasting Company chose a child and officials to visit the Church of the Nativity in Israel. Inside a grotto at the church is an eternal flame symbolizing the light of Christ in the world.
Using blast-proof miners’ lamps, the flame is brought back to Austria. In a special ceremony, that one fire is used to light a series of other lanterns carried by representatives from throughout Europe.
For the past 15 years, the flame is also flown to New York City each year, to spread across the U.S.
Since the start of the ritual, it has been Boy and Girl Scouts and the European Girl School equivalents, Guides, who help transport the flame. To have it pass through Johnson County, a local offshoot of the Scouts, Venture Crew 228, took charge.
Venturing is a Scouting program for both men and women ages 15 to 21. The organization is aimed at building leadership and positive adult attributes in teens and young adults. They take days- or week-long trips to local natural areas to kayak, hike, camp and do other outdoors activities.
Wallace’s two children, Abigail and Nicholas, are members of Venture Crew 228.
“They do high-adventure stuff, and try to do some kind of trip each week,” Wallace said. “It’s wonderful to have them be a part of a group with such positive values. It’s very gratifying to know that in a social group, it’s not just socialization that they’re focusing on.”
Karnes, one of the leaders of the Venture Crew, first discovered the tradition of the Peace Light during a Scouting training conference he attended in England over the summer.
European Scout leaders told him how they used the spread of the flame as a project for their troops.
“I thought that would be neat to bring back here,” Karnes said. “I had never heard of it until talking with them that it was brought over every year.”
The movement of the Peace Light is coordinated on a website and adjoining Facebook page, tracking where the flame is headed and how others can light their own lamps with it.
Leaders arrange to carry the original light to the next organizer, helping it spread across the country. Some people drive hundreds of miles to pass off the flame.
But a coordinator was coming through Indianapolis from Massachusetts, and Karnes arranged to meet with him Nov. 27 in Indianapolis.
“Last year, a couple here in Indiana had to drive all the way up into Michigan to get the flame, so we were really lucky that he was coming through here,” Karnes said.
Since then, Karnes and the other members of the Venture Crew helped spread the flame locally. They had a small ceremony Dec. 4 at the Johnson County Courthouse to talk about the journey of the light, where it originated and how they could carry it on.
“We got the word out to as many people as we could from a couple of different churches in town, and they brought their own candles or lamps to light theirs off of,” Karnes said.
Following the ceremony, Karnes passed the light off to the next leg in the relay, and the flame was off to Martinsville.
Even as the flame has been passed on, it remains here in Johnson County.
The Wallace family have theirs lit on their kitchen table, and intend to take it to their church to allow other members of the congregation to light their own candles or lanterns. They are also planning on using the flame to relight the pilot light on their furnace. Then the light of Christ will burn in their homes every day, Wallace said.
Karnes plans to take the light to a district leaders’ meeting of Scouts this week to share among other troops.
“I’m trying to encourage doing this a lot more throughout council, since it goes from the east to west borders of Indiana. We could spread it very easily across the state, just within the Scouting community,” Karnes said.
