At the end of 2000 Newport City Council gave Community House £30,000 for an environmental project. This was used to create the Peace Garden, which was inspired by the fact that Cyril Summers was a pacifist (and in the war a conscientious objector).

When Summers was mayor of Newport, he introduced an event to celebrate Hiroshima Day on Aug 6th. People still go to Tredegar House and place flowers on the lake to mark this anniversary. With this as inspiration, the Peace Garden was created. At the time, there was a blind group meeting at the centre. They were involved in choosing flowers of a highly scented variety, so that even those who couldn’t see could still enjoy the garden. There are 3 different ‘peace trees’ in the garden.

One of the people involved in the Peace Garden and peace-making was Angus Duncan. He originally was an engineer. He later became a Minister and on the 90th birthday of the Church, he came back to Community House to plant a tree in the Peace Garden. Brian also mentions Marilyn Priday’s Peace events that take place annually in Community House and the Peace Garden.