Doves of Peace

Over 2000 origami Doves on exhibition as part of a community art installation for Hope and Peace.

It saw (soar?!) thousands of visitors in the one month exhibition earlier this year. Now, hundreds of Doves have flown to mini community exhibitions. Here’s the story…

Frances Bell MBE reports:

All were warmly invited to see the flock of 2000 Doves of Peace in Barnstaple’s

Parish Church on the High Street. Each origami paper dove was created by a local

resident as an expression of hope for peace.

Brought together by artist Caroline

Preston and architect Enea Emiliani, the large flowing display fills the air of the

sanctuary-like space. It invites visitors to pause, reflect, and – in the serenity of our

historic Church – to sense the calm and peace that the participants and artists

wished to evoke.

The project shows how small actions of individual people can, together, send a

strong message of unity, kindness, humanity, and peace. It gives a voice to an

otherwise silent majority to respond to reports or threats of armed conflict, extremist

hostility, rage baiting, or aggression towards perceived outsiders. Using Barnstaple’s

Parish Church as a visual metaphor for peace, hope, and unity, it gives airspace for

local residents to say: “This is not who we are.”

The participation of local groups has fostered a sense of shared purpose and

community collaboration. Barnstaple in Bloom, the main organiser, brings a passion

for creating partnerships between groups, organisations, and individuals to benefit

the whole Town.

The Rev’d Canon Dr Benjamin Williams, Vicar of Barnstaple, said:

I’m delighted that the Church can host this exhibition. One of the reasons that Jesus

has always been a compelling figure is that he taught the Golden Rule to “do to

others as you would have them do to you” and, what’s more, he practiced what he

preached.

The 2000 expressions of hope for peace that fill the Church communicate

the same commitment to loving kindness, human empathy, and concern for the

wellbeing of others on the part of our local community. The exhibition,

dedicated on Sunday 1 February 2026, with this prayer of St Francis of Assisi –

invited everyone with the prayer:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

With thanks to Councillor Syed Jusef who sponsored this exhibition.