SHERBORN - The Peace Abbey commissioned Dan Dick of Natick as a Peace Chaplain recently, recognizing Dick's commitment to the principles of faith-based peacemaking and service to the Peace Abbey community.      

Peace Abbey Director Lewis Randa said, "Today's ceremony is a recognition of Dan's long unofficial service as peace chaplain to the Peace Abbey community."     

At the commissioning, which took place in the Peace Abbey's multifaith chapel, Randa and Peace Abbey program coordinator Dot Walsh spoke of the history and duties of peace chaplains.      

Randa explained that the peace chaplains draw from the spiritual teachings and traditions of the major faiths of the world to promote understanding and harmony, love and forgiveness, and peace and justice. Peace chaplain activities include promoting interfaith dialogue, religious education, conflict resolution, pastoral counseling, draft counseling and performing weddings and dedications of children as Instruments of Peace.      

After Walsh presented Dick with a ceremonial stole, which he will wear while performing chaplain services at the Peace Abbey, the group recited the Prayers for Peace, which are the foundation of the Peace Abbey's multifaith peace ministry.      

Attending the ceremony were Dick's wife, Carol Sakala, and children Leah and Jonah, as well as students and staff from The Life Experience School, which founded the Peace Abbey in 1988.      

Afterwards, participants were thrilled to discover that during the ceremony a monarch butterfly had emerged from the chrysalis that Walsh had brought to the Peace Abbey earlier that morning. The group then gathered outside at the Sacred Cow Animal Rights Memorial to watch the butterfly dry its wings and fly off.