In some places, people simply exchange the peace with their nearest neighbors, while in other places, the peace goes on longer than the sermon, as parishioners move through the space greeting every single other person.  Often the passing of the peace feels to me less like the profound ritual action that it is, and more like a chance for people to catch up on greetings and gossip from the past week.

When we started the Supper Service at St. Gregory of Nyssa, San Francisco, we decided that we would lean into the "ritual action" rather than "conversational" quality of the Peace by singing rather than speaking our exchange of  the peace.   We rotated through a variety of songs, "Da Pacem Cordium" (Taize), "Shalom my Friends", "Peace, Salaam, Shalom."  This past October at the Parliament of World Religions I learned a chant from the Earth Spirit community that could work at the peace: "Peace in my heart.  Peace between our hearts.  Peace in the heart of the world."

In my current parish (one in which the prevailing custom is to greet every other person in the congregation) we use a Peace Song to gently call the congregation back together for announcements following the peace.  When we sing together, I believe the peace that we share swells to fill the whole room, and (hopefully) flows out to fill the whole world.    

You can find a robust selection of paperless songs of peace using the "Peace" filter (under "Contexts and Gatherings") on our MMC Songs Database. Check it out now by clicking on this link!