Institute for Healing of Memories

Sermon Preached at St Georges Cathedral Cape Town October 9,2011 by Fr Michael Lapsley,SSM

2011-10-09T22:25:00.000+02:00

What a week it has been – with the death of Steve Jobs, demonstrations against corporate greed on Wall Street and all the drama associated with the 80th birthday of our beloved Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

I read the readings for today one by one – I believe that the task of every preacher Sunday by Sunday is to do theology – to theologically reflect on reality in the light of Scripture.

The Latin Americans taught me a long time ago that we should not start with Scripture rather we should start with reality and look at it in the light of faith. - As we used to say it was important to hold the Bible In one hand and the newspaper in the other – maybe today it’s the blackberry or the ipad which contain both the Bible and the newspaper.

I'm also conscious that all of us read the Bible in the light of our own context – none of us are objective we are all subjective - depending on whether we are rich or poor -gay or straight - women or men - black or white – we read in the light of what is happening in our lives at the time - what is the current mixture of joy and sadness that we are experiencing. But all of us looking for good news - seeking to find meaning, purpose and inspiration for our lives

As I mentioned - I am part of the Institute for healing memories - so I'm particularly conscious of the importance of dealing with the past - of acknowledging it - and finding the way of, wherevef necessary, detoxifying ourselves.

When I read the Gospel for today, I couldn't help wondering what kind of mood was Jesus in when he told this parable about a king and the wedding Banquet.

There are several places in the Gospels, and this is one of them, where I have a sense that Jesus was saying – come on you guys - I have now given you the same message 100 times but you still don't seem to get it. I will tell you yet another story and see if you understand this time.

Ironically it was often the religious people that had the greatest difficulty understanding the message of Jesus whereas it was often the little people of the world who understood instinctively what exactly the good news is.

God's kingdom is for everybody but we can choose to exclude ourselves - that is not God's desire, it is our choice.

For us as Capetonians - living in a city built, at the beginning, by slaves - there is an incidental irony in the story - slavery is assumed and not questioned – slaves are not regarded as people.

Some of us believe that here in Cape Town we have not yet fully acknowledged and faced what slavery did to the soul of this land and how it infected successive generations up to the present time.

We continue to live under oppressive economic systems that, like slavery did, fuel our greed.

Sometimes our consciousness of contemporary wounds blinds us to old and even ancient wounds.

Many of us have felt wounded this week by the way our democratically elected government has handled the invitation of the Dalai Lama to another banquet. - that of the birthday of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Personally I was annoyed, angered and ashamed that we as a country would treat 2 of the worlds greatest spiritual leaders in this way.

However as the days have progressed, my feelings have changed. I am now thankful that the Dalai Lama did not get his visa

Why? You mean it was right that the South African government failed to grant the Visa timeously. No, that was wrong, so what is my point? It was a wake-up call to every citizen in this land.

What kind of country do we want to live in? What is our responsibility in making it happen. What is our dream for South Africa. What is God’s dream for South Africa?

We as the faith community did not simply say that apartheid was a crime against humanity although it was - we said it was a heresy – a false doctrine - contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We fought for a society based on human rights for all. We paid a terrible cost in our souls and in our bodies. We fought for the right to elect our own leaders. We never gave any of them a blank cheque to take away our fundamental rights.

This week one of South Africa's most illustrious leaders had his right to freedom of association taken away from him. In so doing our nation became a source of negative publicity across the entire world. We should be worried when our political leaders treat us like small kids while trying to explain and defend the indefensible.

It is right that as citizens we all belong or vote for different political parties. It is right that we have a great loyalty to our political homes. We are also right to have a deep love for our country.

However if we are Christians, out ultimate loyalty is to God with an overriding commitment to our common humanity.

In his own faithfulness as a Christian, Archbishop Tutu has also taught us many lessons.

As I wrote on my Facebook page a couple of days ago:

Archbishop Tutu - I admired you when you fought for the rights of black people and then I realised you wanted white people to be free as well - then you championed the rights of women especially in the church and then you dared to fight for the rights of same gender loving persons despite what people said about you - ALL of us God's children of equal value - Thank you Baba - God bless you - Happy Birthday with all our love

I know that a number of you participated in the 1st international Desmond Tutu peace lecture yesterday. I wondered whether Steve Jobs now in I – heaven helped organize the live streaming and video feed that enabled the Dalai Lama to be virtually present. How wonderful to see technology and spirituality coming together to help create peace and compassion.

As Times live reported it: Tutu was asked how he believed war could be stopped, Tutu responded: "Actually it is very straightforward: let women take over."

He said women were by nature more inclined towards compassion, whereas men tend to feel they have to be "macho"."You are basically life-giving, life-affirming. That is what you are naturally when you are unspoilt... Women can actually make society civil."

I also believe that by inviting the Dalai llama to give the 1st international peace lecture Tutu was also teaching us something else. For the world to live in peace no matter what our faith tradition, we have to begin to reverence and learn from different spiritual traditions. The spirit blows where it wills.

Whilst the drama surrounding the Dalai Lama's visa was unfolding here in South Africa, I was reading about it in Norway. I visited the International Centre in Hamarøy in the arctic circle which provides a home for refugee children. They come as unaccompanied minors to Norway from places of war and conflict.

Everyone of us can recall the massacre that took place in Norway on July 22 when a homegrown terrorist set off a bomb in the centre of Oslo and then proceeded to the small island of Utøya where he gunned down scores of young people. Such horrors had not happened in Norway since the Second World War.

It has been a trauma for the whole nation. Remarkably their prime minister insisted that the national response would be more openness, more democracy, a deeper commitment to a multicultural and inclusive society.

I reflected with the Norwegians how we as a nation were able to turn Robben Island - a place that was supposed to destroy - into a sign of the triumph of the human spirit. I wondered out loud whether the island of Utøya where the massacre took place in Norway might one day become a place of healing and reconciliation.

Let us pray for the Norwegians that as they journey through their own pain that they will find a new point of connectedness and compassion with and for other people's across the world including for the refugee children in their midst.

But now let us return to the Bible passages for today.

The gospel for today seems to be a grim warning.

By contrast, the Epistle taken from the letter to the Philippians is much more like a parting love letter - full of support and encouragement and inspiration.

Why not take this passage and read it just once every day this week. It is food for our journey as Christ’s Body and Blood will also be.

A week before Easter, my mother aged 93, breathed her last. As a woman of personal and deep faith she had one final message for her family and friends. It was this passage from Philippians which she asked us to read at her funeral and so I read to you once more

Philippians 4:1-9

Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Amen

interview with Fr Sam Sifelani of Chipadze Parish Diocese of Harare CPCA Part II

2011-09-22T07:29:00.000+02:00

Interview with Fr Sam Sifelani of Chipadze Parish Diocese of Harare CPCA Part I

2011-09-22T07:15:00.000+02:00

Interview with Fr Shepherd Munzara of Glenview Parish of Harare Diocese CPCA

2011-09-22T07:01:00.000+02:00

Dean Farai Mutamiri of Harare Cathedral CPCA

2011-09-20T22:29:00.000+02:00

Interview with Bishop Chad Gandiya Diocese of Harare CPCA Part II

2011-09-20T07:25:00.000+02:00

Interview with Bishop Chad Gandiya Diocese of Harare CPCA Part !

2011-09-19T23:04:00.000+02:00

Interview with Ernest Ankomah Director of Michael Lapsley Foundation Accra Ghana

2011-09-19T21:06:00.000+02:00

Letter to Dr Margaret Nash read by Fr Michael Lapsley,SSM at her Memorial Service

2011-08-08T17:35:00.000+02:00

St Georges Cathedral Cape Town

August 8 2011

Dear Margaret

Every day for the last month I've been expecting a phone call to say that you had gone. Now it is true you have breathed your last. Now finally you are at peace.

The fight is over, the battle won. Your suffering has come to an end – this last year was a very hard one for you to bear and yet bear it you did - wryly suggesting to me that 3 score years and 10 was actually quite enough.

It has not been easy either for all those who loved you, to watch you waste away – until towards the end you looked as if a feather would knock you down.

Watching you die slowly was extremely hard especially for you but even for those of us who were the witnesses. Nevertheless there were some redeeming features. One of them was that many people across the world who love and admire you were able to send messages and come to visit you.

Of special significance to you was the validation and acknowledgement given to you by leaders of the Christian community in general, and the Anglican Church in particular, who came to see you in hospital.

In the last year once you knew that this was truly the last chapter of your life you were determined to continue to lead a full life. You told me just how helpful your dear friend Dr Florrie has been, often herself being the one to take you on wonderful outings - together with that close circle of marvellous women who have been your friends for decades.

You were so appreciative of how Allan Taylor, supported by his wife Viviene helped you to get your affairs in order.

Quite a long time ago you asked me if I would lead your memorial service once your time on earth was over. I worried that I might be very far away as I often am, and not able to fulfil your last requests.

Dear Margaret

Today I am happy to report to you that I and all of us here in this great cathedral are fulfilling your last requests but even more importantly we are here to give thanks to God for, and celebrate your remarkable life.

I have to tell you now that you were the 1st person ever to invite me to a committee meeting to organise their own funeral and a memorial service. Nevertheless we did all turn up because of our love and respect for you and all that you achieved in the life that was given to you.

Certainly by the time that the end came, you were ready to go – if at times a little impatient that it was taking so long

You were very keen that this service would reflect your deepest beliefs. Because you lived your life as a disciple of Jesus Christ you wanted to have a service that would reflect your Christian beliefs. But at the same time you were anxious that people of other faiths and indeed of no religious faith would feel deeply welcomed and be full participants at your final farewell.

I often felt that you were tormented by the unfairness of the privilege which came from having a white skin. In practice it has meant a life lived fighting for justice especially for those racially oppressed and condemned to lives of grinding poverty.

You used your great intellect in the service of liberation for all of South Africa's people. Way back in the 1970s most of what I learnt about forced removals came from you. You embodied the letter of James that faith without action is meaningless.

Generations across the globe have admired your commitment to the ecumenical movement both in South Africa and internationally since your earliest involvement with the Student Christian Movement

Your old friends, Lutheran Bishop Barbel Wartenberg Potter and Dr Philip Potter who I spoke to yesterday said they will be with us in spirit today.

Young Christian activists continued to see you as a role model for their own activism not least in the Anglican student Federation.

Thank you for your support for the End Conscription campaign and individuals like Peter Moll and Dr Ivan Toms.

All those who have spoken bear witness to the breadth of your ongoing practical commitment to transforming our society.

At your special request the Bethesda Zion Apostolic Choir is here from New Crossroads. You hoped that this final service would indeed be as inclusive as possible both reflecting the rainbow nation, the ecumenical family and an interfaith vision for a peaceful future for humanity.

Thank you Margaret for being such a faithful friend for more than 35 years.

Thank you for your generosity and support for me personally as well as for the work of the Institute for Healing of memories.

Like all good friends do, many of us loved you warts and all. Some of your less diplomatic remarks have already become legendary at our dinner tables. Like when I proudly showed you the new grass which had just been planted at my home Your immediate and only response was that it was the wrong kind of grass and that I should not have planted it. Recalling your unwavering punctuality, now that you have gone it will be strange to have parties with no one coming on time.

We shall miss your legendary Christmas letter with their crossings out, sharp analysis and asterisks.

It is true that you became disillusioned with the direction taken in recent time by the ANC because of how much you love this country. To the very end you were committed to justice for all. Probably if you had been younger, you would have made a wonderful public protector if not the leader of the asset forfeiture unit.

Many of us have experienced your heartfelt compassion. How moved I was that even as you lay dying yourself, you wanted Kader’s wife, Louise, to know that you were thinking of her.

Each of us here today has a story to tell about how you impacted on our lives.

Today dear Margaret this nation salutes you for all you have given us throughout your long life.

In your lifetime you were honoured with the order of the DISA by the Western Cape and more recently for your contribution to the United Democratic Front.

For our part we pledge ourselves to do more to make South Africa the land of our dreams for all her people.

How appropriate that we should make this farewell on the eve of Women's Day. You have struck a woman you have struck a rock certainly applied to you.

Margaret, You will be in our hearts for ever – Go well dear sister - may you rest in peace.

Interview with Fr Michael SSM on Healing of Memories with Kate Turkington on Radio 702 on Sunday July 17 2011

2011-07-19T23:00:00.000+02:00

Listen to the interview now!

"So Jesus didnt wear rolex?"

2011-06-05T23:34:00.000+02:00

“ So Jesus didn’t wear rolex?”
Bible Study on Matthew 6:19-34 presented at the Kirchentag - Dresden Germany June 4 2011 by Fr Michael Lapsley,SSM assisted by a broad and rich cross section of humanity
My dear Sisters and Brothers.

When I was growing up I heard about Dresden and about its bombing. My understanding was that the bombing of Dresden was a war crime, an act of terror (as Winston Churchill called it), carried out by the Allied side during the second world war. I felt guilt and shame at the terrible things our side did as they fought for freedom. It was but one example of the grievous wrong that was done to a people as both sides crossed moral threshholds. I cannot begin to imagine how much pain was endured by that generation who lived in this city.

I am sorry about what was done to you, and your parents and grand parents.

How wonderful that today the Kirchentag should be celebrated in this beautiful city – another step in the healing of old wounds.

I never imagined in my wildest dreams, that one day I would be asked to lead a Bible study at the Kirchentag – this extraordinary Church festival.. This is especially so because I am not a Biblical theologian. Unless of course that is precisely the reason I was asked, because I am NOT a Biblical Theologian!
Nevertheless I accepted – then I began to panic as I imagined myself standing in front of you in Dresden with nothing to say.

After I stopped panicking, I decided on a methodology to prepare myself for today.
First of all I decided to ask my facebook friends to help. I realized that Facebook would not be enough. In 1998, I started an Institute for Healing of Memories in Cape Town, South Africa. We have an email list of people connected to us from across the globe. I asked everyone on that list to read the passage carefully and if they were wiling to share what the passage meant to them in their context.

Only some of the people on that email list are Christians, so I explicitly wrote to all my friends: Buddhist, Christian, Communist, Atheist, Moslem, Hindu, Agnostic….asking for their input to this Bible Study. I have long come to the conclusion that the future of humanity is not a Christian future but an interfaith future including deep reverence and respect for atheists, agnostics and those with indigenous spiritualities. I asked everyone to read the text carefully and share your reflections upon it from your life and context
Over the last months, I have received responses from a rich diversity of the human family.

Many years ago I was very startled when I read a theologian from Latin American, Carlose Mesters, who referred to the Bible as God’s second book. He asserted that the whole created order including ourselves as human beings, constitute God’s first book. The Bible, God’s second book is like a guide book to make sense of the first book.

We come to the second book to make sense of the first. The Latin Americans also helped many of us to see that we must always begin with the context of who we are. None of us come to scripture objectively – we all come subjectively in the light of who we are, of our place in the world and all that is happening in the world. The same passage will mean different things to us at different stages in our lives.
So today we come to Matthew 6: 18-35 at this great church festival - but what is in your heart today? What has been happening in your life recently – joy - happiness, sorrow, satisfaction – do you have a secure job – are you unemployed – have you ever gone to bed hungry? how old are you – what kind of family do you come from – full of joy and laughter - pain and sorrow – more of one, less of the other. How significant to you is your racial and gender identity – how have they affected your life – what about your sexual identity - be it known or unknown – heterosexual or same gender loving.
Do you have old wounds in your heart, in your family, in your nation –that have not yet healed.
What is your experience of scripture – disturbing or comforting, oppressive or liberating - have people ever used Scripture as a weapon against you and your identity.

Lets read the passage together. I am reading from the NRSV translation which has inclusive language.

Matthew 6:19-34 (NRSV)

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and
rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes
and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure
is, there your heart will be also.

"The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body
will be full of light; but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!

"No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one
and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and wealth.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat
or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not
life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the
birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and
yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than
they? And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of
life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the
field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even
Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. But if God
so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow
is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you -- you of
little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or
'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' For it is the Gentiles
who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows
that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of
God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you
"So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of
its own. Today's trouble is enough for today.

My first impression of this passage was that it is about priorities – Jesus is inviting us all to look at our own lives –

I was always challenged by the radical demands of Jesus to follow him. For me that meant both the priesthood and the religious life as a member of a religious order since adolescence.
Like all of us, I suspect, I have been challenged by conflicting demands for obedience.
Sure you cant serve two masters but in reality don’t we all have many masters?

Someone has said the obvious – what is life threatening will be life changing. Death and the possibility of death are what often cause people to rethink what is really important in their lives. So it is with me.
Many years ago when I was part of the liberation struggle in South Africa, the Zimbabwean authorities came to me and told me that I was on a South African Government hit list of those they wished to kill. For a moment in time stood still. I asked myself – what is it that I am living for if in fact a Government would wish to kill me for it. Where is my heart.

And then in 1990, they almost succeeded in killing me. Once more I had to face my priorities. For me the struggle to free South Africa had become my priotity – it was the context in which my priesthood and discipleship of Christ was lived out. After I was bombed I realised my struggle, was now the struggle to get well , to return, to live my life as fully, as joyfully, as completely as possible.
Step by step I was transformed from being a freedom fighter to becoming a healer – providing safe and sacred spaces for others to take significant steps on the journey to healing and wholeness.

A week before Easter, the day before Palm Sunday, my Mother completed her earthly journey – my Father having left us 23 years before.. In the days since, while grieving – I have been re-examining what is really important in my life - what is my treasure?

I am a member of an Anglican religious order - the Society of the Sacred Mission. I first went to the community when I was 17. Most of my brothers today are young Africans living in the tiny and very impoverished – economically speaking - Southern African mountain Kingdom of Lesotho. I invited my brothers to study this text together.
We also began by reading the passage out loud

After two hours of study my religious brothers came to some conclusions
We have to have faith. We don’t have to be that person killed by his treasure. Put our heart where our treasure is.
It is good to have this kind of study and see how other brothers are thinking. There are 2 ways of passing knowledge – I learn from you and you learn from me. Our community grows.
Today I have learnt not to complain every day. I must not worry.
From now I will always make sure to see what sort of people Jesus was speaking to. When reading the Bible, I have not always focussed on my context.
It has reminded me what a shared gift the Holy Spirit truly is, and how my own view is a very partial one.
Jesus is talking to his disciples and they are committing themselves to serve God, reminds me to look back to what I have said and done before.
Your heart will always be where your treasure is. I am not going back, but as we discuss – remembering those people who own something – I learn from other brothers. We make one thing together, shaping this passage to our lives.
This Bible study has helped me to see more broadly, to look at other points. But we must be focussed. Let’s have one a month, it will help us understand each other and grow together.
I am thankful to the German Church (we were doing this Bible study because the German church had asked me to prepare for the Kirchentag). What could be more appropriate than for brothers to sit together and study together? The key is what is important? What are my priorities? I experienced the deepening of my own faith, enriched by others’ contributions.

Let me now share with you what was written by Brother Clark who is Minister General of the Anglican Society of St Francis

Matthew 6:19-34 is part of the Sermon on the Mount

As I read it some Franciscan associations come to mind:

"...where your treasure is..." Francis was particularly adamant about
divesting property and owning nothing because ownership prompted
possessiveness and lead people to fight for property. Poverty and owning
nothing was a way to peace. It was about placing my treasure with God,
the things most precious to me, my peace, joy, love gratitude and there I
would find my center, my heart. God dwelling in us and us in him.

The sound eye and the body being full of light, of finding illumination,
being transparent to God's love. The body full of light is the body full
of love. I am reminded Jesus restored sight, healed eyes several times in
the gospels. To see is to delight in the world to be dazzled by the beauty
of the world, the beauty of God. That is joy, it is peace, it is light.
Francis' prayer (the Absorbeat): "May the power of your love, o Lord,
fiery and sweet as honey so fill my heart that I may be willing to die for
love of your love as you died for love of mine."

Francis was single hearted, rejecting money (Mammon). It was all about
freedom. His call to us in the world is to recognize the radical freedom
Jesus was preaching and offering us. When he strips himself in the public
square and returns the money he stole (to rebuild San Damiano church) to
his father along with all his clothing he says: "I no longer have a father
on earth, but only my Father which art in heaven..."

Jesus says: seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these
things shall be yours as well..." Thomas of Celano, Francis' first great
biographer says of Francis: "Thus he would direct all his attention and
affection toward the one thing he asked of the Lord, not so much praying
as becoming totally prayer." As Ilia Delio, the Franciscan theologian
says "If we persevere in prayer the bitter will become sweet..." the
darkness will become light. Francis totally "got" Jesus' teaching about
entrusting ourselves to God and finding it returned a hundredfold.

Thinking about the specific admonition abut being anxious, I am reminded
about how the brothers in the Solomons (living the Franciscan spirituality
today) say grace before meals, listing everything which God provided to
make this all possible for us to eat: "We thank you holy father for the
air we breathe, the water we drink, the animals who gave their lives for
us, the wood we burn, the strength to gather all you give us" God
provides and we collaborate. It is all about what God is doing for us.
There is no need to be unduly worried about food, drink or clothing. there
is enough for everybody. This conviction fires the commitment to social
justice. As a friend once wrote: "There is enough for everybody, we only
need the political will to share." That's the rub, where sin distorts. It
comes back to where your heart is and if you are loving, trusting or
greedy, and willing to fight for your "stuff"

Sr Assumpta HC A Catholic Sister from Germany who has spent a lfetime working in Namibia wrote her response to studying this passage
Freed anew in spirit as a result of my reflection, I was called to throw myself in utter dedication to concentration on his concerns - the Kingdom of God through continued practical LOVING in my community and in my parish.

I would like to quote extensively from what Professor Gerald West wrote to me. Professor West heads up an Institute for the Study of the Bible. His take is markedly different from most of the contributions, I received but very compelling. It is also confronting and challenging.

Professor West wrote:
“My own reading of this text would be strongly shaped by the so-called 'Lord's Prayer' that precedes it. In Matthew 6:9-13 Jesus sets out 'God's project/kingdom', which is a vision for 'on earth' as 'in heaven'. Jesus is assuring the marginalised, who make up his movement, that God does have a project for social transformation, and that this transformation is intended to be 'on earth, as it is in heaven'. God's project is about this life, and not (only) the life to come.

Key to this prayer is the economic dimension of life. I would place a colon after 10. In other words, verses 9-10 set up the vision of God's project 'on earth', and verses 11-13 indicate what this vision would look like in practice. The key is economic change. And the economic change must be systemic.

Since the emergence of the monarchy (see 1 Samuel 8) and the construction of a temple-state under Solomon, the world of ancient Israel was shaped by a tributary mode of production, in which the surplus of the local peasant farmers was extracted in various ways to support the increasingly centralised state and its urban elite. One of the mechanisms of extraction was debt, which eventually forced farmers off their land. Without land their could be no 'daily bread'.

Jesus understand this, and so assures his listeners that God does want everyone, even the poor, to have bread for each day (verse 11). But he goes further, making it clear that he is not talking about charity or soup kitchens here! He moves, in verse 12, to the systemic dimension, namely 'debt'. It is this fundamental mechanism of the economic system that Jesus confronts. Just as our modern capitalist system is rooted in debt, so was the ancient tributary system. Jesus argues that without the 'release from debt' there can be no sustained 'bread for the day'. So there must be a release from debt, and the return of people to their land and the control of the economic system - Marx made a similar point!!!

But just in case the marginalised see this as about 'the other', Jesus challenges them too to release their own colleagues from debt (verse 12b). We cannot expect macro-economic justice without mico-economic justice. Indeed, Jesus goes on to argue, the 'temptation' of the 'evil one' is precisely here, namely, that we expect others to put the sysem right but do not see ourselves as also involved in structural injustice.”

One of the lessons we have learnt in the Institute for Healing of Memories is that all people are capable of being both victims and victimisers even at the same time

The rest of the section, verses 14-34, which is our focus, is a detailed argument to a marginalised community not to get caught up in the accumulation of wealth. Verse 24b is key, 'you cannot serve God and Mamon'. The focus is on systemic economic injustice, and how these systems are the very opposite of God's project/kingdom. There can be no 'kingdom on earth' unless we embrace a life of sharing rather than hoarding”

Personal / Political economy
Gert Rüppell wrote

This text brings many experiences in my
life to the surface, which have been different according to the periods I have been
handling this text.

There is the period, when I was involved in development education, coming originally
from business, I new what it meant to store treasures and how futile it was
in many of the businesses one was doing (when gain became a target of speculation,
grain speculation became futile due to unexpected surplus production. Gain often
was very near to loss (e.g. the thieves at the exchange) . And secure gain was
very often a matter of cutting production costs through transnationalisation (wage
exploitation).
My change from one profession (chartering broker) to the other (Theologian /
development education in Mission) was an insight from this fact. My belonging to the
church, could not permit, to serve two masters, one had to make a decision.
This the more as I became involved in the ecumenical movement for which the
question related to International Economic Injustice, became a more and more
central one due to its globalisation, transculturisation and greater pariticipation of the
poor Seite 2 in dialogue. I understood: The Christian had to be with and not only for
the poor.
If we do not see the reality of asymmetric relations between North and ‘South, but
also in our own countries, our body represents darkness. We spoke in those days of
“tertiaterranity of Christianity” meaning, that the “wounds of the body, the blindness
of the eyes” where structural and global and Christ’s crucifixion was cutting
through all nations / populations.

The German folk song tradition knows a song, which takes some of the ideas from
theis text. It tells about the flowers in spring, which dress up with great colours,
much more beautiful then Salomon’s dresses
„Narzissen und die Tulipan Die ziehen sich viel schöner an Als Salomonis Seide“
(Geh aus mein Herz und suche Freud)
German church

Friederike.Schulze wrote

Mt. 6, 19ff. contradicts in my point of view fundamentally the society in which I live as well as the church I belong to, which is part of that society, and benefits from it. Although state and church in Germany are officially separated in our constitution, the church has been privileged by law, since centuries, and defends those privileges.
Our protestant churches started a “reform process” under the slogan: “salt of the earth”, but if you read the documents and proposals concerning the reform process, they do not rely on bible texts like Mt. 6. The “reform process” focus on the subject how to win more churchmembers and churchtaxpayers, and how to make the church more efficient and more attractive (I ask: in which eyes efficient and attractive?)
I understand Mt. 6 as a fundamental challenge to the capitalist neoliberal concept. As far as I see, Mt. 6 is taken seriously by individuals and groups, inside and outside the church, who look and work for an alternative peaceful, just and sustainable life on earth.
Monique Ruppert from Luxembourg wrote

First I asked myself at what stage of his life Jesus might have spoken these words. He was surely in a good mood.
"Don't worry about what you will eat tomorrow..."
It can't have been as he was setting out on the Way of the Cross.
However, as I reread the text several times, I noticed that it runs contrary to everything today's society would like us to believe through its political messages and advertising announcements:

To be happy, you must take steps to have more and more: more money, more clothes, more consumer goods.

Jesus then asks us to choose between two values, two treasures, to commit ourselves to God or to a material treasure. To trust God or to become slaves of society.
(On 1 February 2009 on French morning TV, the French advertising tycoon Jacques Séguéla said: "How can anyone criticise the President of the Republic for having a Rolex? Everyone has a Rolex. Any 50-year-old without a Rolex is a failure" *).

Jesus made that choice. He followed the way of his commitment and "agreed to suffer out of loyalty to the truth" (**).

(From ML So Jesus didn’t wear a Rolex!)

I realise how weak I am in relation to my need for security and my future. Is my faith strong enough to allow me to commit myself to God's way right now, when the adversary would like me to worry about tomorrow?

(*) F. Lenoir
(**) René Labbé

Mike Bick asks
In terms of its modern application; the environmental issues and their long term economic effects seem to point to the need to find an alternative to growth in GNP as the key mechanism for stabilising societies. If there is an alternative, then some of the words of the text might be reinterpreted to promote an alternative ethos which might engender the sort of behaviour required for sustainable living.

Osama assassination
Jenny Sprong
SOCIAL JUSTICE COORDINATOR
DIAKONIA COUNCIL OF CHURCHES
wrote
My reflections on this passage are influenced today by the horror story of the revenge killing of Osama bin Laden.
‘Storing up treasures’ – what do we view as important? What is a treasure today? Oil? The lasting treasures of love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, self-control, faithfulness and gentleness, are not on many people’s lists anymore – these are obviously fruits so what is called for in order for us to bear these fruits or rather to allow the Holy Spirit to bear these fruits in and through us? Justice, fairness and acceptance of ‘the other’.
‘If your eye is healthy then your body will be full of light …’ what makes our eye ‘healthy’? My perception of the United States at the moment is that its eye is full of revenge and hatred, which renders their ‘body’ full of darkness. It is now also open to more darkness, whereas if they had turned towards the Light, the darkness would have been dispelled.
Serving two sovereigns? To whom is our allegiance? When people celebrate the death of ‘an enemy’ they show who their ‘master’ is – the ‘master of war, violence, power, greed and force. When Christ asked God to forgive ‘the enemy’ because they did not know what they were doing, Jesus’ allegiance was clear – forgiveness and reconciliation come from the God of love and when we serve the God of love, there is no room for the god of power, greed and revenge.

Sigrid Brüggemann, Germany
(6,22 “The eye is the lamp of the body ….”)
A healthy eye brings light to the body. If the eyes are ill
darkness might come to the body. We will become blind
and timid. Sorrows are not needed. We are not any more
openhearted. We have problems to recognize the truth.
Helpful would be discussions in small groups where
Equally minded people can encourage each others frank-
ness. That should lead to political involvement (e. g.
Amnesty International, Greenpeace etc.)
Gay
Theo an Epeiscopal priest from the US writes
Speaking from "my own life and context," this passage has always been close to my heart as a kind of personal philosophy. You might expect that growing up as a teenager with a gay identity in the 1960s in the deep suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri would have been traumatizing: oppression from peers, church, family, self.
And yet it wasn't. It was confusing (mostly because I felt I couldn't talk to anyone and so was "all alone") but never threatening to my core sense of the goodness of life and of myself. Which brings me back to the Matthew passage: somehow I have been gifted with a sense of trust that no matter what happens, God walks with me through it all and therefore gives meaning to it all, a confidence that no trouble can ever shake.

Worry
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life,…..”
In recent years my late Mother in her wisdom began to say – I no longer worry but I am concerned. A number of people shared their reflection about “worry”.
Georgette Delinois and friends
Going through Matthews 6:19-34, we had an interesting discussion that enhanced or helped us discern our faith in God's promise to always take care of us even when it does not seem like it;helped us make the difference between worries and concerns with the definite understanding that worry can: Damage our health; cause the things we're worrying about to consume and cripple us; and to negatively affect our relationships with others; reduce our ability to trust in God. Whereas concerns can be a more practical/rational phenomenon and a definite great force that can help us move ahead, take actions and make a difference in our life and in our world here. Ultimately worries immobilize us, cause depression, anxiety and even psychosis and concerns lead us to take actions for example raise money to help the victims of the earthquake in Japan and Haiti to help individuals regain their dignitiy and acquire some of their basics human rights.. --" Planning for tomorrow is time well spent worrying about tomorrow is time wasted.
Lucy Janjigian wrote:
To Trust in God. In my life I have discovered that when my faith is weak I tend to worry.. then I know I am far from Christ.. He is not at the center of my life.. I have put my faith in myself. When my faith is strong I do not worry. I take it to the Lord in prayer.
Serena Newby (USA), Maryse Barak and Judy Bekker in Cape Town write
“Worry” is much less part of my personal script
As I understand things, Jesus was talking to very poor people, most of the time. I think about the innocence of poorer people....fewer complexities of the western mind. There is a truth in these words that goes beyond and I believe many of those in poverty know this.
Dr. Gert Rüppell
Open heart surgery
Just recently I had to undergo open heart surgery. It is in one way threatening, on the other hand I experienced, that there was a deep trust, that things would go the way God wants (you never fall deeper then into the hand of God) My wife and myself, took the Eucharist on the evening before
and I feel, that this gave the trust to us, the text describes.”
"So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today's
trouble is enough for today. And one more final thought, even if the text has meant different things to me at different times, it always has served as an eye-opener for what it means, to leave comfort, for a life in discipleship and how difficult this is.
SSM brothers
You worry, you die. If you don’t worry you still die
Can worrying make you live any longer? I think Jesus was challenging people, especially rich people, with beautiful clothes etc. He makes example of wild flowers versus Solomon’s wealth. I think of Jesus’ discussion with the rich man in Luke. I will do this, but today you will die. You will leave it behind. Who will take care of it when you are gone? Jesus is showing us not to be obsessed with what we have – but to share what we have.

Elias Wanyama who spent 8 years on death row in Uganda wrote:
The “Life’s worry” was the greatest battle I had during my 8 years as a death row prisoner, the Worry later turned into fear of death by hanging.

Sigrid Brüggemann, Germany
“Therefore I tell you do not worry….”)
This is the answer to our normal behaviour. God knows what
we need. Do we really believe in that and act accordingly ?
For us this request sounds too radical, we are scared about
this. We are allowed to build “our own house”, we should
however not think about us alone but we should share our
possibilities with others at the same time

SSM brothers
I have often tired of the seesaw the Church does over this particular challenge of our Lord. Poor, pious and left leaning Christians have used it to bash the rich (for being rich); whereas rich or comfortable Christians like to stress that material possessions are not bad in themselves, providing we can maintain detachment from them and they do not get in the way of our pilgrimage here on earth. Yet today I was struck by the 6 times Jesus tells us not to worry in the text – but to trust in God. For me, this is the heart of the message – rich or poor, male or female, white or black, we must trust in God in our lives – and actually live our lives as if we believed this.

Jeremy Lucas - suicide
When I was in high school in about grade 10 I was considered a nerd. Because of a thyroid problem I was exceptionally tall and very thin and hyperactive. It was so bad that a biology teacher remarked that I was very figity and that was generally considered a feminine characteristic. I played the drums in the marching band and on the outside was generally a happy looking teen. The problem was that on the inside I was wracked with teenage angst about life. It was the mid 80’s and I had taken the cynical, though not unrealistic view that the world would be destroyed by nuclear war before I graduated. It was during this dark time that I seriously began to consider suicide.
I was trying to stay connected to church, and was attending with a girlfriend at the time. We attended a youth group that met on Sunday nights and was led by a young man named Bill New. I was struggling in my life and Bill could see it. It was during this time that I came closest to killing myself. One day when my parents were out of the house I found my grandfathers revolver that my father kept in a chest. It was loaded and I sat with the gun on my chest for the longest time contemplating taking my own life. As I sat there thinking it was Bill New who came to my mind and a bible verse that he shared with me just a week or so before. Matthew 6:34 Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries enough of its own. At that point I realized that I had to make the choice of life or death and with the words of Jesus telling me not to worry, I chose to live.
Inter faith
Serena Newby (USA), Maryse Barak and Judy Bekker in Cape Town write
“Sufficient unto the day – lay up for yourselves, treasures in heaven” – speaks to me of letting go of attachment. I became aware of how Buddhist the text is actually.
“So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”

Similar Quotes in other sacred texts:
Men who have not lived a religious life and have not laid up treasure in their youth lie like worn-out bows, sighing after the past
Buddhism Dhammapada 155-56
Wealth and sons are the adornment of the present world; but the abiding things, the deeds of righteousness, are better with God in reward, and better in hope
Islam Qur’an 18.46
If by gving up a lesser happiness one may behold a greater one, let the wise man give up the lesser happiness in consideration of the greater happiness.
Buddhism, Dhamapada 290
Both the good and the pleasant present themselves to a man. The calm soul
examines them well and disriminates. Yea, he prefers the good to the pleasant; but the fool chooses the pleasant out of greed and avarice.
Hinduism, Katha Upanishad 1.2.2
How many animals do not carry their own provision! God provides for them and for you. He is Alert. Aware.

Islam Qur’an 29,60
Whoever has bread in his basket and says “What am I going to eat tomorrow?” only belongs to those who are little in faith.
Judaism. Talmud, Sota 48b
Running after that cur, money, I have forgotten you, O Lord
What a shame! I have time only for making money, not for you.
How can a dog who loves rotten meat, relish the nectar
Hinduism.Basavanna, Vacana 313

General

SEGASINDE NGABO YA FATI.
RWANDA/KIGALI

What an important message in a materialistic world,and when the main message in many churches today is about'' PROSPERITY''.
My comments on this message is summarized at the Math6;33.
The most important thing in human life,and purpose is not wealth,celebrity,honor,etc..it is abundant life,peaceful and eternal life.
look around you peoples are destroying peoples and their properties,nations are destroying nations and properties in order to get more properties and wealth ,what
absurdity?in the name of democratic,social justice,human being are killing in mass human being,this show that they do not know the way to peace....[james3;18.]
God is greater than mammon
Life greater than food.
Body than clothes.
let us seek and hold on what is eternal[spiritual]and worship God that anything else.
Craig writes about Mammon
It is also important to note that this version loses the plot in translation when it says, ‘You cannot serve God and wealth.’ The Hebrew word is not wealth/money (as some translations have it) but Mammon. Mammon is a spirit, a spirit that controls the desires of men for riches. As you rightly point out these things are innately powerless. So the point is: If your heart is not seeking after God it will give way to another master (and the most powerful being Mammon.)

Challenges

John Ferris
As a 77 year old Catholic father, grandfather, and great grandfather, these words have always made me smile because they are so simplistic and sincere but at the same time quite impossible to live by not only today but at any time and place in the lives of ordinary men and women if, taken too literally.
I know only too well where I would be today if all I did in my life was follow this reading blindly and not do anything else to look after the physical needs and aspirations of my self and my family.
What I did realize is that I had to try and do the two things with equal emphasis in life if I wanted to be reasonably happy and comfortable in this world and in the life hereafter.
These two things were to treat all people as I would wish them to treat me and mine, and to try to the best of my ability to live up to the beliefs of my Catholic faith.
Loraine Tulleken writes
I matriculated from a Catholic boarding school, feeling that I’d done enough church for a life time and only returned to church after I turned 50 – a bit of an end-of-life insurance policy. My son, who had suffered a head injury in a motorcycle accident, still refers to those years as the RODs (rich old days) . We lived in a wealthy suburb, drove nice cars and travelled overseas every year.
Then came the call to priesthood. At the time I was acutely aware of the need to be less materialistic. In fact, during a meditation of John 21:1-17 I felt I was being told to give my business one last big push and that I would emerge secure enough to go into full time ministry and be able to look after my son (then in his early 30s).
What fools we are when we take the Bible at face value or read it like a horoscope, but, in my defence I was still doing theology 101.
My constant refrain has been “I must make sure Malcolm is safe once I’m gone”
My constant prayer has been “Lord please let me live long enough to achieve that.”
M is now 43.
As a 67 year old systematic theologian I’m not going to reach any conclusions without , prayer, study and an eagerly awaited read of your paper. But, in replying to you, I wonder:
Where the line sits between good stewardship (providing for my son) and not trusting enough;
I know that I have enjoyed a fulfilling ministry in the business world because people of all denominations and faiths turn to the priest in their circle (It’s like having an uncle in the furniture business) but, as a self supporting, did it free me from disciplines of Church?
On the outside we look fine but we walk a tightrope created by lack of trust in God and in others to look after my son. So, as I see it, it’s not just about not serving two masters but not allowing others the freedom to minister to oneself. The trust needs to be accompanied by a readiness to let go control to God and to others.
I believe there are many Christians who really wrestle with the issues raised in your Bible Study, especially when one starts to look at it multi-dimensionally.

Angela Lee
We must not be tacit but explicit by sharing. For when we die all our earthly treasure remain on earth. Therefore we need to focus on the Lord and not material things which can lead us to sin.

Delene Mark
I suppose its all very well for people who have easy access to all the necessities of life to not worry about tomorrow or to not save for the future…however we live in a world full of inequality and in justice.
I have no clue what this bible passage means, especially as it defeats everything you get taught in life about being prepared for the future. Organisations are constantly aiming to create sustainability!!!
I assume then it’s a long winded way of saying…focus on God, and if we contemplate what God is saying to us and to all creation, we will not be greedy and selfish and hide away things that could be shared for the benefit of all.
If we all use what we need, then there is ample for everyone.
When we are not consumed by acquiring wealth and possession, we have more time to spend on relationships with people and also to appreciate all God’s creation.
The message here is that we should maintain the constant health and wellbeing of our minds and bodies, however conceitedness and greed have no place in life. Its does not matter if you wear levis or jeans from Pick and pay…as long as you are warm and comfortable?

Fr Jack Martin
I share in the ministry in Haiti.
Two quick reflections
1) I think it was John xxiii (or another pope) who said,
"If I have the love of God in my heart, everything else is secondary;
If I don't have the love of God in my heart, everything else is meaningless"

**********
Gillian Lloyd
There is no sin in becoming rich legally, it is what we do with our riches that counts
Irene Bick
My personal comment is, "Treasure is where your heart is, where ever and what ever that is!"
If it is relevant to people's lives now, it doesn't matter who wrote it, why or when. I can't see that it is of any more value because it is in a 'gospel'. I can see that it would take some careful consideration to apply it to lives now. It is not really feasible in our economy to live without insurance for example - unless you think it is all right that other people should bear the burden of your fecklessness.
The thing about worry is that it doesn't actually achieve anything. If you spend your life concerned about what is going to /might happen and live in fear and apprehension because of it your are missing the opportunity of making the most of 'now' which is actually all we can influence.
Living and appreciating the present seems a pretty good maxim for anyone.

Political/Personal

GREG MASHABA
Firstly, I wish to express my profound gratitude at your invitation to share our personal reflections with yourself. This has been both a beautiful and humbling experience. Through his exercise, I have had the opportunity to reflect on my own personal experiences, firstly as both a Christian and a revolutionary, and secondly as a citizien of the democratic and formally a non racial Republic of South Africa.
My immediate reaction at the reading the passage is that this a call to myself, my comrades and all the persons of goodwill to strive always to:

Uphold the highest standards of morality, be it in our private lives or in public.
Be exemplary in our conduct by openly placing morality in its spiritual and secular sense at the centre of our daily lives.
To help create a better world through preaching and practicing the Gospel (the “Good News”).
You and myself grew up together in the liberation movement. We were both members of the ANC and Umkhonto Wesizwe. We often regarded each other not only as comrades, but as brothers in a real sense of the word. It is critical to note that we were also both Christians who openly professed our faith at certain times under awkward conditions,. You were stanchly Anglican and I was and remain proudly Catholic. The main consequence of this relationship is that we both always strove to perform our revolutionary and armed activities within the context of the Gospel. Indeed such was strong spiritual roots and the desire to hold strong to the Christian tradions of most our cabers that the ANC under leadership of Oliver Tambo decided to establish the Religious Affairs Department.

Personal Faith Conclusion
Finally I want to encapsulate my own reflections by saying that nothing in this world materially speaking, could ever make up for the miracle of knowing that God is with me at all times, He is interested in every facet of my life, and without Him I would be spiritually poverty-stricken.
Jennifer Southwood
Elias Wanyama
All beliefs have a start point of a creator and daily helper, a handy companion to easily fall to in case of any problem/complication, whom we Christians call God.

Final Response

John Tregea

The phrase that repeats to me after reading the scripture is:
The only thing we can truly take is responsibility from my own life I know that even that is a gift our "response" "ability" is the innate gift to respond to love, to our author.
I once read that the Spirit of God comes to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. Sometimes we need a dose of both.

A Franciscan Blessing
May God bless you with a restless discomfort about easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, so that you may seek truth boldly and love deep within your heart.
May God bless you with holy anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may tirelessly work for justice, freedom, and peace among all people.
May God bless you with the gift of tears to shed with those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, or the loss of all that they cherish, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and transform their pain into joy.

May God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you really CAN make a difference in this world, so that you are able, with God's grace, to do what others claim cannot be done.
And the blessing of God the Supreme Majesty and our Creator, Jesus Christ the Incarnate Word who is our brother and Saviour, and the Holy Spirit, our Advocate and Guide, be with you and remain with you, this day and forevermore.
AMEN

Priest draws hope from hurting - Pat Gee - Honolulu Star Tribune - May 7 2011

2011-05-09T10:42:00.000+02:00

Priest draws hope from hurting

Father Michael Lapsley will share his journey from victim to victor in a weekend workshop

By Pat Gee

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, May 07, 2011

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FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARADVERTISER.COM

Father Michael Lapsley, an Anglican priest who was fighting against apartheid in South Africa when a bomb in his mail destroyed his hands and an eye and shattered his eardrums, has developed a worldwide ministry to help heal the emotional and spiritual wounds of violence.

CORRECTION

» The bomb that blew off the hands of Episcopal priest Michael Lapsley was in a thick magazine, not a parcel. An earlier version of this story mistakenly said Lapsley received a package. More details can be found at healing-memories.org.

Father Michael Lapsley, maimed by a mail bomb for his protests of apartheid in South Africa, says he is more of a priest with no hands than if he had two hands.

"One of my primary qualities is I've got no hands. It gives me a point of entry to others," Lapsley said in an interview here Monday. "Nobody says to me, ‘You don't know what pain is,' though frequently pain is more invisible than not. In that sense it's an asset — it gives us an avenue of connection. The sharing of pain connects us at the deepest level of common humanity."

Lapsley was living in exile in Zimbabwe in April 1990 when a package to him exploded. It blew his hands off, shattered his eardrums and destroyed the sight in one eye. The Episcopalian priest said he had been targeted by the South African government for his global activism against the racist policy of apartheid, which was abolished by 1993.

Lapsley, who said on his website that he "traveled the journey from being a freedom fighter to being a healer," is in Hawaii listening to the stories of female inmates and talking with students and members of the Judiciary, churches and the Hawaii Forgiveness Project.

Linda Rich, who organized his visit with fellow Church of the Crossroads member Liz Nelson, said, "We saw that people here, as everywhere, are hungry for hope and healing and justice."

This weekend he is leading a Healing of Memories workshop at St. Anthony Retreat Center in Kalihi Valley. As part of his worldwide ministry through the Institute for Healing of Memories, he shares his journey from being a victim to a victor and tries to help free those who are "prisoners of their own history," he said.

Lapsely, 61, is a native of New Zealand who moved to South Africa in 1973 and took up the cause to overturn apartheid. In 1998 he formed the Institute for Healing of Memories, which is an outgrowth of his work as a chaplain of the Trauma Center for Victims of Violence and Torture in Cape Town, South Africa, following the ending of apartheid.

Lapsley's path to recovery from his wounds has been neither smooth nor straight, and he says he is no "plastic saint" who pretends not to succumb to self-pity and frustration over his disabilities from time to time. (The bomb blast also left him with impaired hearing — "I can only hear when you say nice things to me," he jokes.)

"There were moments that I thought, maybe it would be better to be dead," he said. "The healing journey is a zigzagging road — two steps forward, two steps backward."

It is punctuated with unexpected flashes of vulnerability, little things that stab him in the heart, like the look of horror on someone's face upon seeing his artificial hands — hooks with which he can grasp things. He will always need an aide to help him. Grief over the permanent loss of his hands is the strongest of his emotions. "It affects every single part of your life every single day," he said.

His focus, as a victor, is to bring redemption to his life and to help others do the same.

"How do we bring good out of evil and find what is life-giving out of loss? Take something out of horror and turn it into something beautiful?" he said. "Part of being a victor is to live life as fully, and joyfully and as completely as possible. If I were filled with hatred and bitterness, then I would be a victim forever, because they would have killed my soul."

Those who have been traumatized are often burdened with advice that comes across as "cheap, simple and glib," he said, when the very idea of forgiveness is incomprehensible. And it's common, after a loved one dies, for people to "tell you to get over it and move on when the body's hardly cold. … Often it's more important to embrace them and acknowledge their pain. Don't come up with some glib, clip answers as to what they should do," he said.

"Sometimes you have to feel an emotion to its fullest before you can let go of it, but sometimes a (workshop) facilitator or someone who means well will intervene too quickly, because they can't handle the emotion, and try to make everything better right away. You have to say, let me be weak for a while; then I'll become strong."

Lapsley said a Healing of Memories workshop gives people a chance to share their pain fully, without advice or judgment.

"It's not magic. We don't give them a certificate of healing when it's over. They are just sharing in a safe and sacred space. This can be life-changing."

Lapsley said in the process of reconciliation, he believes in reparation and justice far more than punishment of those who do harm. In his case, "I still have no hands," so if the perpetrators of the bomb were ever found, they could make up for it by assisting him the rest of his life or working at a hospital, he said.

And where is God in this? Lapsley said he believes "in a God who accompanies us, who feels our pain, not in one who can deliver us from it. If I am angry with God, then I must believe that God did this, and God doesn't send bombs."

"Our faith has treasures within it that can help us enormously to deal with the human journey of pain and suffering. But it would be foolish to say only religious people can heal, as agnostics and atheists can find their own way of healing. I say that's God; it's the way the spirit moves."

Reflect on our words and their effect published in Business Day 27 1 2011

2011-01-27T23:39:00.000+02:00

AFTER the killings in Arizona earlier this month, US President Barack Obama made a speech in a sports stadium to a traumatised community: "But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarised — at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do — it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds."

It is not every day that a world leader asks people to "talk with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds". As we know, sometimes a speech or piece of writing is very localised but has universal import. We would do well to consider what Obama has said.

It is timely for us as South Africans to reflect on how we speak to each other and the effect it has.

Unfortunately, politicians have not always taken this into account.

Given the centuries of war, conflict and hatred that have characterised our relationships in SA, I guess we should not be surprised that we still have some way to go.

There are so many examples that come to mind of language that is demeaning and inflammatory that has been part of our national discourse, which had its place when we were at war but no longer contributes as we continue the task of nation building.

References to "machine guns", "snakes" and "cockroaches", and even the injunction "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" are just a few examples of words that have been used carelessly and provocatively to gain popular support.

When immature or unhinged people act on the words we say, it is simply not good enough to claim that we did not mean to be taken literally.

Ironically, when we were at war, the language of the Luthulis, Tambos, Sisulus and Mandelas reflected civility, dignity and restraint.

Those of us privileged to listen to the speeches of Oliver Tambo were often struck by how every word was measured and considered.

The chosen words reflected a deep sense of responsibility because of how all the listeners might interpret the words he uttered.

Do the words that slip out reflect the degree to which we are a damaged people carrying deep within our souls unfinished business and destructive feelings — ready to infect the body politic and successive generations?

As the local government elections are around the corner, the parties and erstwhile public representatives have an opportunity to offer the nation a positive vision without vilifying others. And, at the same time, they have a chance to show an appreciation for the hopes and fears of those who think differently from them and whom they may still represent. Great leaders will take into account not only the aspirations of those they want to elect them but also the dreams and fears of those on the "other side".

Some years ago, I was speaking in an impoverished community in KwaZulu-Natal about the healing of memories. At the end of my presentation, a grandmother asked: "Are you working with our leaders?"

No, I said, we have chosen to work in communities.

She retorted: "Well you should. They are much more messed up than we are."

Sometimes our preoccupation with politics blinds us to the multidimensional nature of ourselves as human beings.

Everything has a political dimension, but not all of life can be reduced to politics — particularly not our woundedness.

Regardless of our role in society, we can all have demons that will not be silenced and need to be exorcised.

How we speak is a reflection of what is inside of us and, perhaps, of our own need of healing.

- Dr Lapsley, the Director of the Institute for Healing of Memories, is an Anglican priest whose hands were blown off in a letter bomb while he was chaplain to the African National Congress in exile. The institute was set up in parallel to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and now also works with traumatised groups in SA, including victims of xenophobic violence, orphaned children responsible for their households, and prisoners.

Interview with Galuh Wandita of the International Centre for Transitional Justice in Bali Indonesia

2011-01-26T21:57:00.000+02:00

Letter in support of Tutu, Goldstone and Asmal published in Cape Times 19 January 2011

2011-01-19T23:24:00.000+02:00

The recent petition for Archbishop Tutu along with Professor Asmal and Judge Richard Goldstone to step down from their positions as Patrons at the Holocaust Centre is disturbing. Even though the Chief Rabbi thinks the Archbishop’s criticisms of Israel are unfair he has come out clearly in support of Arcbishop Tutu remaining a patron, while staying silent about Professor Asmal and Judge Goldstone

Having Tutu, Goldstone and Asmal (each of them revered throughout the world as champions of human rigjts for all) as Patrons of the two Holocaust centres adds weight to the universality of what we can all learn from the genocide . Nor should we forget what the Nazis did to gay people, disabled people, communists and others.

The claim that the Archbishop is anti-Semitic is absurd. When some of us opposed apartheid, we were told that we hated our own race and that we were unpatriotic. We were loyal to our common humanity in the same way that Tutu,, Goldstone and Asmal are.

Is it possible for some people, that their identity and remembrance of their own and their peoples trauma, blinds them to the suffering they are causing today?

Fr Michael Lapsley,SSM

Institute for Healing of Memories

Cape Town

Interview with Kirsty Sword Gusmão of Timor Leste

2011-01-05T22:49:00.000+02:00

Its that time again - End of Year Message from Institute for Healing of Memories

2010-12-20T06:47:00.000+02:00

Dear Friends

Personally I enjoy the messages people send at the end of the year including the ones that update what has been happening to friends and family.

As last year, I am writing to you from Bali in Indonesia.

Yesterday with my colleague from Kwa Zulu Natal, Mpendulo Nyembe, we arrived from Timor Leste. We offered a healing of memories workshop and took the first step of training facilitators.

Timor Leste is also the home of one of our Patrons, Kirsty Sword Gusmão who became the first, First Lady of Timor Leste when it joined the community of nations in 2002. Kirsty founded the Alola Foundation to better the lives of the women of Timor Leste Today Kirsty is Goodwill Ambassador for Education with a particular passion relating to vernacular teaching in primary schools of Tetum and other indigenous languages. Spending time with her was one of the highlights of the visit to Timor.

In Timor Leste, I was struck by the relevance of the idea of "popular" and "unpopular" victims and of the shifting sands of how and who should be regarded as victims. No one disputes that political prisoners who were tortured should be regarded as victims. But what about those whose fathers were Indonesian soldiers and mothers, Timorese women. Today these young people struggle to get their identity documents as well as with their own identity.

As I travel the world I am often moved by the stories I hear but there are a few that imprint on my soul. Bishop Marc Andrus invited us to begin to work with the Diocese of California in addressing old and recent wounds. including those among same gender loving people. We were told a story of how at the height of the AIDS pandemic a dying man called an interfaith response to AIDS. He told them that when he realised he was dying he called his parents who arrived on the next flight. They knelt at the end of his bed and prayed that he would die quickly so that evil would leave this world. We in the faith community carry heavy responsibility for the pain we cause.

On a more positive note, as our workshop began today, two Papuan women who are learning to be facilitators spoke of the enduring and transforming effect of the workshop they attended a year ago. "I was dead and now I am alive."

In 2011 providing we have adequate funding we will complete the extensions to our new house which will give us a large meeting room and more office space.

15 years into our new democracy, accelerated by the world economic crisis, and ironically even by our hugely successful world cup, traditional donors are one by one ending their support for the NGO community. South Africa has now overtaken Brazil as having the most skewed income distribution in the world.

We too in IHOM are being told by very old friends that their support is coming to an end. At the same time we have gained some new friends.

Requests for healing of memories, in South Africa, in Southern Africa and across the world continues to grow. To survive, we will regretfully not be renewing the contract of our COO, Mr Charles Obol. We thank him for his sterling contribution and wish him every success in the future.

In 2011 we will seek to market ourselves to government and the private sector to offset our work with refuges, those with AIDS and prisoners where we need to find funding.

However to survive beyond 2011 we need help from all our friends.

Please consider giving the Institute a gift this Christmas which incidentally is tax deductible.

I pray that a number of you will also help us through a monthly stop order.

Thank you for believing in us and for your contribution. We are grateful..

Pleas see account details below

For the Institute the highlight of 2010 was the Southern African Conference we partnered with the World Council of Churches, AACC and LWF where we focussed on ancient, old and recent wounds and how we are called to respond. We have laid the groundwork for greater work throughout Southern Africa in 2011.

The highlight of 2010 for me personally came on May 1 when so many of you participated physically, electronically or spiritually in the Mass of Thanksgiving on the 20th anniversary of my bombing with prayers for all victims of violence and torture.

I am grateful to each of you for all you do to reverence the image of God in others and in yourself and to care for the created order.

As we like to say: All people have a story to tell and every story needs a listener.

As those of us who are Christian, celebrate the birth of the Christ child, of Emmanuel - God with us, we are all reminded of the fragility and vulnerability of the human family and indeed of Mother earth.

I join with all my colleagues in wishing you a restful and peaceful time. May we all return with strength and vigour to make a better world in 2011.

with deep respect and gratitude

Michael Lapsley,SSM
--
Institute for Healing of Memories
Director: Father. Michael Lapsley SSM
5 Eastry Rd,
Claremont, 7708
Cape Town
Republic of South Africa

Tel: +27-21-683 6231
Mobile: +27-(0)82-416-2766

Office email: info@healingofmemories.co.za
Website www.healingofmemories.co.za

Payment may be made as follows:
Bank: Standard Bank
Branch: Mowbray
Branch code: 02-49-09
Name of Account: Institute for Healing of Memories
Type of Account: Current
Account Number: 071341455
Swift Code: SBZAZAJJ
Please identify your payment clearly – thank you
Please also fax/email copy of your deposit slip to:
021-683 5747; email: avra@healingofmemories.co.za

Beginning Healing of Memories in the Diocese of California

2010-11-24T00:29:00.000+02:00

On the frontline between North and South Korea.in the days preceding the G20.

2010-11-10T09:02:00.000+02:00

On our way to the airport to begin the journey to Seoul we were told
that there had been shooting across the border between north and south
which had been reciprocated. At the same time there was a resumption of family
reunions who had been separated for sixty years since the end of the Korean war.
Flying on Korean airlines a week later I saw footage of a second round of reunions
with some of the family members in their nineties. Somehow both the reunions and
the shooting framed the visit for me.

I had been invited by Youngnak Presbyterian Church founded by the Revd
Kyung Chik Han together with refugees from the North. It was 10 years since his death..
100 of us from 50 countries came together to reflect on the life and teaching of the Revd Han and speak about the challenges of building communities of reconciliation. The church had partnered with York St John University in the UK to organise the conference

I have to say that the scale of generosity and hospitality of Youngnak Presbyterian Church
knew no bounds. They had spent years preparing for our arrival and showered us
with love and kindness

On our second day there, with my colleague Madoda Gcwadi, we attended
the life profession of two Franciscan brothers in the Anglican Cathedral
I learnt that the Revd Kyung Chik Han himself and his church had a very extensive social and pastoral ministry and that although leader of a church which had in excess of 50,000 members, he had died without a personal bank account and almost no personal possessions.
It lead me to assert that indeed the Revd Kyung Chik Han was the St Francis of Assisi for
Korea.

A living relic of the “cold war”

We were taken to the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea and took
part in a prayer service close to the border. I experienced the service as a lament -
the pain was palpable as the South Korean urged us to join them in their cri de coeur
for reunification. We were told by the soldiers at the border that we should not even lift our arms
or wave lest the North Koreans take it that it was a provocation. Not sure that
I was completely convinced. What was it that the visitors on the other
side of the border were being told.

I wondered what militarisation had already done and was still doing to successive
generations of young people in the North as well as the South. Many in the South have totally demonised the North with no critique of their own society and the presence of many thousands of US troops.

Each evening there was a service with a couple of thousand congregants. On the third evening
I was asked to speak. I shared with them my reflections on the trip to the demilitarised zone and wondered what the many decades of oppression, pain and division had done to the Korean psyche. I asked them what they thought God's dream was for the Korean peninsula and how could they cooperate with God's dream. I suggested that God had not finished his work with Youngnak Church or indeed with the Korean people and that the last 60 years was preparation for what God had in mind for them which may not be quite what they had imagined.

Could they imagine a united society where there young men on neither side of the
border were no longer militarised, where there were no foreign troops and a united Korea had become famous for its peacemaking?

In a piece about forgiveness during my address, I spoke about bicycle theology – I steal your bike – I come back to say sorry but I don't return the bike!.

After the service a young Japanese journalist came up to speak to me:
“We Japanese have many bicycles to return to Korea”.

The war between “Us”and “them”

On our very last morning in Korea we sat at breakfast with a Baptist minister from Kenya. He told us a story about the post election violence.
in his country. When the violence broke out he was driving back to his village
with his two teenage sons in the back. Because he is light in complexion and
not recognised by his own tribesmen as one of them in spite of speaking the language, he was stopped at a road block and taken to a makeshift place of torture and killing. When he got there he saw his own father among the killers which saved his life and that of his children. His father's response to almost witnessing the murder of his son and grandchildren was to pick up his
belongings and return home.

I left Korea inspired by the faithfulness and prayerfulness of the people of God, conscious of the pain so many carry and the vocation of all of us to become wounded healers

Redeeming the past - Facing the contradictions and not blinking. “Our national hero was a Nazi and a traitor”

2010-10-29T06:08:00.000+02:00

Before I went to Hamarøy I looked it up on wikipedia.There was reference to a Norwegian writer – Knut Hamsun who won the Nobel prize for literature in 1920.

I had never heard of him unlike the famous Norwegian playwright Ibsen and his great work “The Doll's House”

What brought me and my colleague, Themba Lonzi to Hamarøy was aninvitation from the mayor, Rolf Steffensen, himself a Lutheran pastor. We were invited for the opening of an International centre.The core business of the centre is caring for unaccompanied minors who have received asylum in Norway. They have fled war, poverty and oppression seeking a safe haven in Hamarøy – and this tiny community of less than 1800 people situated within the arctic circle.has embraced them.. We met young people from Aghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka

Rolf has visited Cape Town a couple of times. It was in his encounters with coloured communities in Atlantis outside cape town and with Themba's youth development program that he learnt the stories of the Khoi and San peoples. This learning confronted him with his own relationship with the Sami people – the indigenous people of his country with their own experience of racism and discrimination. Our visit toHamarøy began with a visit to The Arran Lule Sami Centre which provides a focus for educating and demythologising the Sami and passing on their endangered language.

The first night we were treated to a passionate presentation with searing images from places of war but most especially from the recent Israeli invasion of Gaza. by Dr Mads Gilbert..with a clarion call for solidarity with the Palestinians and a boycott against Israel, not even shying away from the complicity of the Norwegian arms industry.

The second night was one of celebration with food from the different countries from which the young people originated.During the cultural performances Themba was invited to make music with the Sami leader Lars Magne Andreassen.

We participated in the 3 day celebration for the opening of theInternational Centre. For the last 10 years before ths centre openedthe town has been in loco parentis to children from countries characterised by war, poverty and oppression.

On the final day of our visit we had the opportunity to offer an introductory healing of the memories workshop to a combination of the staff of the centre and a number of the young asylum seekers who had already spent a year or two in Hamarøy

The sharing of feelings and memories between the young people from war ravaged countries and older Norwegians gave an experience of a commo humaniry. It was the sharing of pain which united us. At the end of the workshop, when it was time to say farewell, Themba felt overcome by all the pain and began to cry. Oneof thr Norwegians commented that in Norway it is unusual for men to express their emotions.I commented that I have long wanted to make a poster which says, "Real men cry".

On the last morning just before the workshop began Rolf took us to visit the recently built Hamsun centre.What for me is extraordinary about the centre is that it lauds his literary work for which he won the Nobel prize for literature in 1920,exposes his racist views about the Sami and talks about he was tried for betraying his country.

Hamsun hated the British but had unquestioning support for Hitler's desire to rule the world.

How do you celebrate your national hero who just happens to be a Nazias well as a racist?

However for me the most telling was how the museum depicted and how Rolf described Hamsun's childhood:Knut Hamsun was born in 1859. His family - parents, two grandparents, borthers and sisters arrived in Hamarøy in 1862 from one of the great valleys of the south. The family had then lost all their property and belongings because of his uncles gambling or perhaps just bad judgement. Another uncle who had already left the south in favour of the north, was at the time a lot better of. He welcomed the family to Hamarøy.

The early years of Knut Hamsun was greatly affected by this loss of family pride and dignity. His mother has been described as mentally ill. At one point Hamsun himself remembered his mother as a person sometimes walking along the roads screaming, but always without words. There is a remaining letter from this period written by his father to the local school board asking for permission to keep the older kids home from school because they are needed at home because of the illness of the mother. The family was of course extremely poor.

At one point the mother and father decided to leave two of their children to stay with the one uncle who was already in Hamarøy when the family arrived. These two kids were Sofie and Knut! At that time Knut was nine years old. Knut Hamsun has described these next few years as the most painful years of his life. He was even tortured by his uncle! Once he ran away from his brutal uncle in the middle of the winter, with little clothes and no shoes on. As he finally reached his mothers and fathers house, 6-7 km away, he was once again abandoned. Actually he was sent back to his uncle immediately... Actually, I think I can see traces of this sad and brutal childhood through his whole life. And one interesting observation from his books, there are hardly any mothers in his books. And the mothers you find, and women in general, are often very complex...often, someone not trustworthy.

Three centres in one small town - The literary hero who is a racist and a traitor, the centre for the Sami and the International centre.

Could the Hamsun centre become an important place of pilgrimage in the future for the growing far right neo-Nazis across Europe? Or is it just a reminder to all of us that a creative genius can be blind and even a collaborator with evil. We like to say in our Institute that all human beings are capable of being both perpetrators and victims - even at the sametime.

Rolf's response to my musing's is instructive:

“I`m wondering, isn`t all this, the human capasity of being a perpetrator and a victim at the same time, also about knowledge and acknowledgment? Yes, Knut Hamsun was definitely both. He was also a litterary hero to our nation. It is contradictory, but all of it is true, and none of it can be denied. I believe that the Hamsun centre, as well as the Sami centre and the International centre, is unique and that it adds value to our healing work.

To me personally, as for many others, the history of Hamsun has been a very painful one. Perhaps we would have been better of if we just left him behind somewhere in our history, as someone to blame and to turn our backs to. To me, at some point, that was not an option.

It all changed when I discovered and realized that he was not a demon after all, but a victimized human being. When I realized this I understood I had to stand up against injustice, violation and abuse, especially against vulnerable children. Children should not be victimized, but be respected, cared for and loved”Can the International Centre do for the children of war and poverty what was never done for Knut Hamsun?

I could not imagine a museum like the Hamsun one being built in South Africa. Could you?

We are dreaming and planning for a collaboration between Hamarøy andthe Institute in Cape Town.

We have gifts for one another

ALL PICS BY Øyvind Olsen

Acceptance Speech for Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters at Liverpool Hope University July 15 2010

2010-07-17T22:26:00.000+02:00

The Chancellor, Baroness Cox, the Vice Chancellor Prof Gerald Pillay, Your Grace, Canon Anthony O'Brien, Members of the Academic Community, Fellow Graduands, Friends

I had thought of beginning my address by playing the vuvuzela but was persuaded otherwise.

May I take this opportunity to congratulate all my fellow graduands on their achievements which we celebrate today together with their families and all whose sacrifices and support made this day possible.

I am delighted that my own sister, Irene, husband Mike and friend Joan are here today together with my religious brother from the Society of the Sacred Mission, Fr Jonathan Ewer. I am especially pleased that my Zimbabwean godson Tigere, is here and my English godson Alan, with other members of their families.
I am happy that Fr Teddy Lennon OFM is here from Namibia.

I am deeply honoured that this great university has chosen to confer an honorary doctorate of humane letters on me today.

There are a number of reasons I rejoice in receiving a doctorate from Liverpool Hope university.

In another lifetime, I was chaplain to your Vice Chancellor Professor Gerald Pillay when he was a student in South Africa during the dark years of apartheid.

Interestingly Professor Pillay later moved to my original homeland of Aotearoa New Zealand from whence I had come to South Africa. There is much in common between the mission of Hope University which Professor Pillay so ably leads with its commitment to preparing students not just for the world of work but also for the work of the world; .and my own work within the Institute for Healing of Memories based in Cape Town. We seek to contribute to the healing journey of individuals, communities and nations

Personally I am excited to be now permanently linked with Europe's only ecumenical university and the vision shared by past and present Roman Catholic and Anglican Bishops of this city. Some would say that at least in the past, it was easier for the Catholic and Anglican Bishops to work together than for Evaton and Liverpool supporters to have a pint together.

(By the way – I am sorry about that goal which England was wrongly denied)

How wonderful for all of us to be graduating in this world famous Cathedral church.

However, as committed as I am to trying to follow Jesus I have long been convinced that the future of humanity is an interfaith future. If we want the human family to live in peace, we need to learn not just to tolerate but to reverence and respect all the great faith traditions. I like the way Hope speaks proudly of its Anglican and Catholic heritage whilst welcoming and seeking to be inclusive to people of other faiths as well as those with no religious beliefs.

Tragically a greater number of conflicts than ever before have a religious component – where religious belief is exploited for violent ends.
As we survey the globe we have good reasons to be worried about Christian, Jewish, Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist and secular fundamentalisms.

On a lighter note, as a teenager in the 60s the Beatles were part of my regular diet. What pleasure the boys of Merseyside brought to my generation.

Only a few years ago, when I first visited Liverpool did I learn that Liverpool's history was profoundly enmeshed with slavery and the slave trade. It is sobering to have to face that there maybe wealthy companies, families and institutions, which endure till today which were built on slavery.

Visitors to Liverpool as well as local citizens and especially young people have the opportunity to be exposed to the reality of slavery when experiencing the relatively new International slavery museum

How do we see this legacy? How do we engage with it?

This reality is something which Liverpool and Liverpudlians share with Cape town and Capetonians. There is a suggestion that some of our communities in Cape Town have known enduring social violence without a break since the days when the majority of people who lived in Cape Town were slaves, till today.

In South Africa we had apartheid which was called modern day slavery. I am sure that there are those among you here today especially the older members of the academic community who at some time in your life were involved in supporting the anti apartheid, liberation struggle. In a university with its Catholic and Anglican parentage we are right to be thankful that we had our share of heroes with such giants as Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, Archbishop Dennis Hurley and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Thank you to each of you who acted to help bring our freedom.

After centuries of war and oppression, democracy finally came to South Africa in 1994 when Nelson Mandela became the President.. We had a momentous task to meet the basic needs of our people for water, electricity, jobs, education, shelter and healthcare

We also faced another giant question – how would we deal with the past? Nuremburg or amnesia? Forgiving and forgetting.? In the end we took the route of seeking to remember and to heal.. Our leaders showed us that revenge could not build a just and peaceful society however justified it may be.

In my own work of healing of memories, I have come to realise just how important both “knowledge” and “acknowledgment” is. It is good that visitors to Liverpool can hear the stories of slaves to gain knowledge about what the museum seeks to acknowledge. So often the victims and their descendants carry within their very souls the memory of what was done to them while the perpetrators and their beneficiaries remain oblivious if not in denial about what has happened.

For the last month I was staying in New York city. A couple of weeks ago I tuned in to get my daily fix of BBC World News. I watched Prime Minister David Cameron responding to Lord Saville's Bloody Sunday Inquiry. His unequivocal description of the killings that happened that fateful day in Derry as “unjustified” and “unjustifiable”has reverberated across the world but particulary in the hearts of the loved ones of the victims who have waited 38 years to hear the British Prime Minister speak so plainly. By also describing how victims were shot in the back and killed while already dying, Prime Minister David Cameron gave both knowledge and acknowledgment to the British people.

The night after watching David Cameron speak in the Commons, I was dining in an Irish pub in the
Big Apple with strong Republican links. Immediately I was asked if I had seen the newscast the night before. The consensus that night over a pint or two was that the speech by David Cameron was as good as it gets. For the relatives of the victims it was validation that there loved ones were unarmed civilians killed in cold blood. In the words of the Prime Minster there was a restoration of
the moral order with bad being called bad.

Some have suggested that the events of that terrible day helped recruit a generation of young people into violence.

It is interesting to note that David Cameron was just six years old when Bloody Sunday happened. Here he was on behalf of the nation taking responsibility and making public apology. I have no doubt that a significant step was taken to begin to heal old wounds within these islands.

I have a dream that the day will not be far distant when a leader of the UK will make a wider apology to the Irish people for past injustices and oppression.

It is a myth that time alone will heal old wounds. Conflicts in many parts of the world traverse generations as grandparents tell their grandchildren stories with poison embedded in the story.

Our generation is characterised by old conflicts which have come back to bite us. All of us can play our part in healing the wounds of history. - but the journey is long – we have to be willing to hear the pain of those at the bottom – to gain the knowledge by listening to the stories – to say sorry
AND to advocate for meaningful reparation.

Within the faith communities, we continue to tear ourselves apart over the issue of sexual orientation.not least in Mother Africa. In this regard secular societies are often much better champions of human rights for all than we who see ourselves as part of the household of God

Another of my dreams is that I will live to see a public apology by the leaders of all the great faith traditions to the LGBTI community for our part in their oppression. I dont know about this campus
but often communities of young people are more accepting of sexual difference than their parents or the temple, mosque or church.

Today South Africa has eclipsed Brazil to be the country with the most skewed income distribution in the world. We are a microcosm of the world. Attending to this disparity is, together with caring for the environment, are the greatest challenges we all face if our grandchildren are to flourish and live in peace..

But let me return to my story, my journey.

This year was the twentieth anniversary of the letter bomb sent by the apartheid state to kill me.
After the attack people of faith and good will from across the globe accompanied me on my journey of healing. through their prayers, and love and support. My story was acknowledged, reverenced and recognised. I was enabled to travel a journey from becoming a victim, to becoming a survivor and more, to becoming a victor.

Now for the last twenty years, I have travelled the world listening to the pain of the human family, seeking to gain knowledge and acknowledge the wrong done to others.
Supporting people to break the chain that turns victims into victimisers - offering safe and sacred spaces where victims can let go of poison to also become victors.

My dear friends, dear fellow graduands, on this day allow me to leave you with a couple of questions

What is God's dream for the human family and for mother earth.

What is my dream for myself.

Am I willing to play my part in realising God's dream

Many years ago, I am told that the friendship between two men – the Catholic Archbishop and the Anglican Bishop was the inspiration which gave birth to this university which continues to be a sign of hope.

During our long struggle for freedom, we learnt to analyse and constantly seek to understand what we were fighting against. However it was because of the hope which we shared that we were willing to sacrifice and lay down our lives to be free.

I have often asked myself, why did I survive a bomb that was supposed to kill. In my physical brokenness, I am a reminder of the results of evil, racism, prejudice and hatred.

However, a thousand times more importantly, I pray that in a small way, I too, am a sign that stronger than evil and hatred and death are love, faith and hope.

May all of us be, and increasingly become, signs of hope.

I thank you.

Old and Fresh Wounds in Bosnia - Hercegovina

2010-05-10T23:47:00.000+02:00

How little I knew about Bosnia before I went there was very scary.

I had heard that 200,000 people had died during the wars of the 1990s just as democracy was finally coming to South Africa. This was to be my second exposure to the Balkans having visited Kosovo a few years back.

I visited Bosnia - Herzegovina from the 9th April for 9 days accompanied by Victor Cervati. I was invited by Svetlana Broz, a courageous and outspoken woman and granddaughter of Tito of Yugoslavia. I had met her eight years before in Cambridge, MA, USA. Svetlana heads an NGO called Gariwo which promotes what she calls “civil courage”. She wrote a book called “Good People in an Evil Time” about those who during the ethnic conflicts acted with humanity and compassion towards the “other”.

Gariwo had arranged the translation of my biography (sponsored by Norwegian embassy) into the Bosnian language (the only language other than the original English that it has been translated into) by Zeljka Vojinovic herself a remarkable person and a widow from the Bosnian war. We were assisted with transport by the OSCE, sponsored by the Dutch embassy and hosted by Mayors of Sarajevo, Tuzla and Bihac.
We travelled across Bosnia and Herzegovina after the first days in Sarajevo visiting Tuzla, Mostar, Srebrenica and Bihac with a very well organised and delightful team from Gariwo. There was massive media coverage of the visit, public launches of the book which were given away free, and lectures to university students. I arrived a nonentity only to become a celebrity a couple of days later. Several staff members of Gariwo had spent 3-4 months preparing for the visit. Virtually, everybody we met had lost relatives in the conflict. Many experiences during the visit will stay with me forever – graveyards, genocide sites and personal encounters. I am sure there will be future opportunities to do healing of memories work in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The day after our arrival we were taken to see the tunnel which was the only lifeline during the siege of Sarajevo in the early nineties - a few short years after it hosted the Olympic games. It is not easy to get your head around what it was like to live in a besieged city in modern times especially during a bleak European winter with little food and without heating or electricity and daily shelling and sniper firing.

We went to Mostar famous for the beautiful Old Bridge Through international financial aid (notably from Turkey, Italy, the Netherlands and France) managed by the World Bank, UNESCO established an International Committee of Experts to reconstruct the old bridge and the old town of Mostar. Work on the foundations has started in June 2001, and work on the reconstruction, in line with 16th century building methods, was finalized in 2002.” ) destroyed in the war and now rebuilt. It was accepted at a meeting in Durban, South Africa, as a world heritage site. Tragically whilst the bridge has been built the town is characterised by an “apartheid” reality where people live apart and children go to separate schools.
Tuzla is a town which is lead by a remarkable Mayor Mr. Jasmin Imamovic, who has a high level of popularity and a moral vision for the town, indeed for the country. During the war young people gathered in a local square on the day that Tito's birthday is celebrated as the Day of youth on May 25 1995. The square was shelled and scores of young people, mostly between the ages of 18 and 25 were killed. Each gravestone included photos of the dead – many of them teenagers with most of their lives still unlived.

From Tuzla we travelled to Srebrenica a place that is known throughout the world because of the act of genocide that took place under the noses of Dutch UN troops although the place had been declared a safe haven by the Security Council. Our visit was filled with tension. The mayor told us that everything was fine and that former residents were returning. A few minutes later the local leader of another political party told us the exact opposite of everything the mayor had said – indicating that people were leaving the town and that there was widespread despondency.
We visited the genocide site at Srebrenica and were shown around by Hassan, himself a survivor of the act of genocide which took place there. Both his twin brother and his father were killed there. He told us that working as a guide there and telling the story was something he could do for his brother and father. To conceal the genocide victims were buried in hidden graves and later dug up and reburied. This has lead to a huge challenge to verify the identities of remains which have been uncovered.

At the launch of the book in Srebrenica, I said that this is place renowned throughout the world as a place of great pain as well as shame for the whole world as WE ALL failed to protect the Bosnian Moslems who had fled here for protection. Shortly after I started speaking a group of young men walked out and continued walking up and down outside the venue in an agitated manner. They were overheard saying that if they had something they would throw it. At the end of the meeting we were asked to make a rapid exit from the town.

I was struck by the emotional reaction of those who feel indicted by simple statements of truth and who respond with great anger. However even here there were signs of hope. I had asked the audience what kind of society they dreamed for their children and grandchildren One young student said that she was not waiting for the future, she was already living her dream every day.

The last town we visited was Bihac, a beautiful town close to the pristine waters of the river Una. It was here that we met the liveliest and most responsive group of students at a technical college – some subsequently inviting me to be their friends on Facebook.

In the National Theatre in Tuzla a woman stood up and spoke about her son who had been murdered and how her life had become meaningless with her husband also dying shortly afterwards. It was as if there was no-one else present just the two of us having an intimate conversation. I asked her, as I had asked another woman many years previously: What kind of life would your son have wished for you.
Other people whispered their private stories into my ears or shared them quietly at dinner tables.

One woman told me a story that continues to haunt me. Her son who is half Serb was disabled as a consequence of an accident. During the war he was assisting with a medical team in defense of Bosnia. A badly injured Serb soldier was brought in and refused a blood transfusion of blood coming from a Bosniak (Moslem) nurse. The young man offered his own blood to save the soldiers life. The soldier refused saying that this would be twice as bad coming from someone with a mixed ethnic identity and he died. Today the young man has begun to hate that part of himself which is Serbian. What an urgent and deep need there is for healing.

During our final weekend in Sarajevo retired General Braco Fazlic of the Bosnian army, a leader of the partisans defending the city during the siege gave us an enthralling firsthand account of the siege including the graveyard partly carved out of tennis courts and now the last resting place of all the city's residents who were killed during the war.
The Dutch embassy hosted a seminar on our final morning on the lessons of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation process for Bosnia and Herzegovina. This meeting confirmed the assertion made by many others about the lack of visionary leadership at national level from either political or religious leaders. It seems that the picture is not as bleak at municipal level where there are leaders who act in the interest of all citizens.
The convergence of the narrowest forms of ethnic nationalism with brands of Christianity – Orthodox and Catholic in contradistinction to each other and to Moslems is as poisonous and as violent in the former Yugoslavia as ever it was under Christian Nationalism in apartheid South Africa.
There is an urgent need for forms of acknowledgment of the past, a process of mechanisms to detoxify the hearts and minds of people – to break the cycle that turns victims into victimisers.

I am looking forward to my next visit.

Father Michael Lapsley SSM
April 2010.

My remarks at Mass of Thanksgiving for my survival on May 1, 2010 - on the 20th anniversary of my bombing

2010-05-10T12:02:00.000+02:00

Remarks by Fr Michael Lapsley,SSM

Dear Friends

Thank you to each of you for being here today. from so many different countries and walks of life.- beloved friends and representatives of different organisations Thank you Archbishop Thabo. Thank you Archbishop Tutu. I am honoured by the presence of Former First Lady Mrs Zanele Mbeki and my old friend Tito Mboweni. We invited people from all over the world. The only ones I expected to come were some of you who live in Cape Town. Imagine my delight when Steve Karakashian said he was coming from the United States and Sven Erik Fjellstrom from Sweden and Fr Chris Chivers from the UK. I am happy to see so many members of the consular corps. I greatly appreciate that High Commisioner Geoff Randall from my birth place of Aotearoa New Zealand and Mr. Eddy Machado, Counsellor of the Cuban Embassy in Pretoria is here. Thank you to leaders of political parties who are here. I appreciate the support of my two brothers, Fr Tanki Mofana and Fr Mosia Sello from Lesotho and my brother priests from Cape Town together with members of the Cathedral congregation. Thank you to each of you who participated in the service in whatever way especially the Pro cantu choir, their director Leon Starker and the organist David Orr, not forgetting our servers, Greg Coetsee and Luke Wildschut.. I have promised our Precentor Fr Bruce Jenneker caviar every day for a year for his many hours of work preparing this service. Also many thanks to my PA, Eleanor Kuhn for all the behind the scenes work and the support and assistance of my colleagues at the Institute and our extended IHOM family... Thank you to Fatima Swartz and my comrades from the Friends of Cuba Society for their part in the catering of the reception we are about to enjoy.

It is not accidental that we began with an Islamic and a Buddhist.prayer.. I have long believed that the future of humanity is an interfaith future in which we need to reverence and learn from each other's faith traditions including traditional beliefs but I also have the deepest respect for my atheist, agnostic, and communist friends.

When I was in Australia a few weeks ago, some friends asked me what I was going to do to mark the anniversary of the attempt on my life 20 years ago.

I decided to begin by asking my two favourite archbishops, Desmond Tutu and Thabo Makgoba if they were available. When both said, yes, today's Mass was on

In the last while, I have thought a great deal about these last twenty years, as well as the events of that fateful night of April 28, 1990 and the years preceding it.

During my years in the liberation struggle and as a chaplain of the ANC, I had become used to death. Time and again I was asked to lead and speak at funerals and memorial services of fallen comrades. As years passed, I also thought about the possibility of my own death. What I had not imagined was permanent major physical disability.

Some of you who have heard me tell my story before, will know that a key element in the bombing was my own sense that God was with me. I also felt that Mary who watched her son being crucified
understood what I was going through.

Shortly, after the bombing, I apologised to a friend that I had survived unlike her son who had been assassinated.

When I was bombed, it was the prayers and love and support of people across the globe, some of whom are here today and others who are with us in spirit, that enabled me to make my bombing redemptive – to bring life out of death, good out of evil,

It was the paintings done by many children especially those from Canada Australia and the UK, on the walls of my hospital room, that helped me through my darkest moments.

Despite the fact that I had nearly driven him mad when he was Bishop of Lesotho, it was Desmond Tutu who, as Archbishop of Cape Town, invited me to come and work here in Cape Town.

In 1993 I started to work at the Trauma Centre for Victims of Violence and Torture. Whilst there, some of us created a workshop model called the healing of memories. In 1998, the Institute for healing of memories was created – seeking to contribute to the healing journey of individuals, communities and nations. With my colleagues and many volunteers, healing of memories has provided a vehicle to accompany many, many people on their journey of healing just as I was accompanied on my own journey.

Whilst it is true that I will always grieve for the hands that I have lost, I am not sorry that I have received many more hugs than I would if I still had hands. . There are a few people who to my surprise, insist on shaking my metal hooks At the same time, I know that I have much to be thankful for. More, I know that I have gained immeasurably through the journey I have travelled.

Travelling the world has taught me that we are one human family capable of the most horrendous deeds. Just a few days ago I visited the genocide site in Srebenica in Bosnia. At the same time we are all capable and called to tenderness, kindness, generosity and compassion.

Often through the years I have asked myself why I survived a bomb that was supposed to kill me when so many others died, who also deserved to live. I guess that some of us had to survive to be living reminders of what we in this country did to each other. But a thousand time more importantly, I hope I can be a small sign that stronger than evil, and hatred and death, is goodness, compassion, love and life – indeed of God

Dear friends, thank you for joining me today in thanking God for my survival and for praying for all victims of violence and torture.

In the life that is left to me, I hope that I will help make the world a better place.

I pray that we will all leave this Mass with new strength and courage to care more resolutely for Mother earth and play our part in making South Africa, Africa and this world a home for all people.

One step towards healing - Overview of the process used in a two and half days healing of memories workshop

2010-02-21T18:22:00.000+02:00

"I have been Humiliated all my" - Haiti November 2009

2009-11-26T00:15:00.000+02:00

Haitian Workshop
“ I have been humiliated all my life” .

The words seared my flesh and entered my soul. It was said by one of the mothers who participated in a Healing of Memories workshop held in “Matthew 25”, a small church facility in Port au Prince.
from November 20 to November 22, 2009

About half of the 21 participants had their adult sons shot and killed during a 2006 massacre at Grand Ravin. Some of the victims were shot at a football match while others were murdered in their homes with loved ones present One of the women had witnessed 4 of her sons being shot and then was shot at herself, surviving only by “playing dead”. In further attacks some had lost everything when their homes were burnt down. The mothers were accompanied by Mr. Evel Fanfan, a fearless human rights lawyer who has championed the cause of justice for the relatives of the victims.

Other participants were young people with a commitment to justice and human rights brought from Jacmel by Fr Rony Fabien who participated and helped with translation .
It was the first visit to Haiti for both Madoda Gcwadi and myself. Haiti is often described as the most impoverished country in the Western Hemisphere less than four hours flying time from New York. We went with Georgette Delinois, President of the Haiti Solidarity Network of the North East (HSNNE) a New Jersey based organisation (that works in solidarity with the poor people in Haiti) and Judith Raymond, also a Haitian American.

For Georgette,herself one of our trained facilitators, and for me too, this was the fulfilment of a dream: to offer such a workshop to “her people”.

The pain in the workshop was palpable. On the first night some of the participants did a skit about the massacre. During the story telling, several of the women showed us photos of their dead sons.
Those who were killed were in many cases the breadwinners bringing their families face to face with starvation. Some said they felt guilty eating the food at the workshop whilst those at home were hungry.

What makes it much harder for the wounds to heal is that a number of perpetrators including police officers were arrested and then arbitrarily released without facing trial.

Our presence as willing, respectful and compassionate listeners coming from the US and South Africa was nevertheless balm to their wounds, albeit in a small, but hopefully significant, way.

A sign of appreciation happened when I was waiting for breakfast on the second day and one by one the mothers shyly stepped forward and kissed me.

We did everything in our power to indicate that we had heard their pain, knew that they had all been horribly wronged and deeply respected each of them as people.

One of the most important conversations we had was about forgiveness. None of us find it easy.
Sometimes we increase the burdens,no matter how well meaning we are, by telling hurting people, that they should forgive, whilst their cry is that we should hear their pain. For some, eventually, the journey and choice of forgiveness maybe the key to their healing.

Even our final celebration was permeated by the intense grief and paralysis of the mothers of the dead sons.

At our workshop we promise participants one step on the road to healing, be it a tiny or a giant step.
Our last question to each of the participants was: How was this workshop for you? The responses were

Very welcoming, given strength and respect, extraordinary, proud of herself , life changing, enriched, very good, change of heart, I am so happy – I cannot find words, forgot the pain whilst she was here, rejoiced and partyed, a catalyst, unloading, constructive experience, building eternity, learned to love and forgive, was loaded, now I am empty
I am happy and relaxed, humble, special grace.
Madoda said it was painful and humbling. We both expressed admiration for the participants and their dignity. I said again that I was sorry for the terrible wrongs that have been done to many of the participants

“I respect each of you and will remember you each time I look at the Haitian flag on my desk when I am back in Cape Town”

As well as exploring other possibilities, Georgette is going to assist in setting up a support group among the mothers during a visit in March.

Writing back in New York my heart and body ache with the pain imprinted on me and I pray that we will be able to develop an ongoing healing of memories program in Haiti.

ends

Tortured, traumatised but not broken: the South African spirit and vision of hope:.

2009-09-17T17:03:00.000+02:00

Laying Ghosts to rest for an audacity of hope

Heritage Day Celebration
Stellenbosch University, 17 September 2009

I would like to dedicate my speech to the women and men of Stellenbosch who were slaves and to all who fought against slavery.

I am honoured to speak here today especially to speak after one of our living ancestors, Dr Mamphela Ramphele. I wish to call to mind great men among the alma mater of this university who gave all in pursuit of our common humanity – such as Braam Fischer, Beyers Naude and Anton Lubowski

In early July I received an email written on behalf of Professor Botman requesting me to come and speak at this day conference around the tentative theme of laying ghosts to rest for an audacity of hope. I am still not quite sure who the ghosts are.

Furthermore it was suggested that the title for my speech might be:
Tortured, traumatised but not broken: the South African spirit and vision of hope:

The question I ask myself is what is God's dream for Stellenbosch, God's dream for South Africa? What will enable the realisation of that dream?

What is your dream for Stellenbosch? What kind of university would you like your children and grandchildren to come to . For those of you who have made Stellenbosch your home, perhaps for many generations – what is your vision for this town – Are you in danger of despairing or are you full of hope? Or does it vary throughout every day. Are you acting today to make your dreams come true?

What time is it now in South Africa 15 years after the birth of democracy 150 years after the birth of this university.

There is plenty to be depressed about – at least if you only eat the diet provided by our media – perhaps even the discourse at some of our dinner tables..

There is a small town called Harnosand in the Northern part of Sweden I visited a few years ago. I was there at 5 minutes to 12 on the fifth of December a few years back.
Despite the below zero temperature there was a giant multicultural festival which lasted from midday to midnight.

Some years before that Harnosand had a reputation as a very racist town. The town had a small refugee community. Because of the xenophobic and racist attitudes that dominated, few people mixed with the refugees. A young woman called Sara Wallin was the exception. She befriended refugees. Very tragically, one of the refugees was psychiatrically disturbed and murdered Sara.
The town was on a knife edge. Ready to explode. Even whilst deeply grieving his beloved daughter, Sara's father, Stig, decided to start the 5 to 12 movement .i.e. His conclusion was that time had run out and it was now five minutes to midnight. He decided that he would start a movement in his community. He began by creating informal spaces where the old Swedes and new Swedes could meet each other as people.. Once a year they would have a cultural and musical festival to celebrate their diversity.
Stig was not an ostrich, nor was he naïve, He faced reality but said However.... nevertheless
and today Harnosand is reknowned as a town that is diverse and inclusive of all who live there..

Is that not God's will for Stellenbosch?

There was a very dark day in our country's history when Chris Hani was assassinated. Perhaps we had never been as angry as a people as we were on that day. We teetered on the edge of civil war - even some would say, race war. Nelson Mandela was not yet the president, but it was he who was brought out to speak to the nation. He said that it was true that this beloved leader was killed by white people but However....nevertheless it was a white couple that lead to the arrest of the perpetrators. Instead of all killing each other, an election date was agreed and we moved forward to our first democratic elections.

One of my favourite organisations is a very small one. - 9/11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. A group of people who lost their relatives in the horrible events of September 11, 2001 – despite the clamour for war and revenge said However ….nevertheless we do not believe in revenge. You may not go to war in the name of our loved ones.- you can bring perpetrators to justice without causing untold suffering to others.

In 1992 I returned to South Africa after 16 years living in Lesotho and Zimbabwe. The first thing which struck me on my return to South Africa was that we are a damaged nation – damaged in our humanity – damaged by what we had done, by what had been done to us, by what we failed to do – and all of us with a story to tell – all of us carrying within us deep feelings – some of which are toxic because of what we had experienced..

If we were to become one nation living together in peace and harmony we would have to listen to one another's stories. Some of us began to set up safe and sacred spaces where we could speak and listen with the heart to one another – places where we could vomit out the poison which had filled our hearts.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission provided us all with an opportunity to listen to each other's pain. Tragically, many white people, especially Afrikaaners, felt they were being attacked and looked away.. Personally I gave evidence to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Kimberly Town Hall – with more than a thousand people present but no white people. It was an opportunity lost – it could have been a time when we travelled towards each other.- it was like that for a few – perhaps even some of you present today – a facing of what we had done to one another .- which changed people for ever.- yes an evil system but However ... Nevertheless each of us is capable of being both perpetrator and victim even at the same time.

One day soon after democracy was born here, I was invited to speak at a seminar in the northern suburbs. I was taken to task for talking about the period between 1948 and 1994. I was reminded that from 1899 to 1902, we were the victims and now we are the victims once more. Please dont confuse issues and talk about us as perpetrators. In my experience, many of us are very clear about the ways in which we are victims but very hazy about the ways in which we are perpetrators. Whenever I have to face myself as a perpetrator, then I have to deal with guilt and shame – Denial becomes a tempting option.

Do we seek to bury and forget the past or to remember and to heal?

Some have asked the question, would South Africa's history have been different if there had been a TRC at the end of the South African war of 1899 – 1902 – if we had been able to face the truth not just of what was done to the Afrikaaner people but also to countless black people.

Of course that is not far enough back.. Have we truly faced what slavery did to us. Some are beginning to look at how communities in the Western Cape have experienced gratuitous violence without interruption down through the centuries. What would it mean for Stellenbosch to truly face that it is a town and an economy built by slaves?

Chief Lutuli once said – those who think of themselves as victims eventually become the victimisers of others.. People give themselves permission to do terrible things to others because of what was dome to them. This is true of individuals, communities and nations.

Nevertheless, however there is another road open before us – it is the road of victim – survivor – victor. Of travelling beyond what was done to us, beyond being simply survivors to becoming participants in creating a different kind of society.

I know that for myself, God helped me, through the prayers and love of many, many people to realise that if I was filled with anger, hatred and desire for revenge – that I would be a victim for ever – they would have failed to kill the body but they would have killed the soul

What is it that enables people as individuals, communities or nations to move away from victimhood?.

We need to have both Knowledge and Acknowledgment

Those who have been victimised need to have public acknowledgment that what was done to them was wrong – that those who did terrible things to others AND those who benefitted are truly sorry.

Often the community of victims holds on to the memory of what happened whilst those who benefitted and even more, their descendants, remain blissfully ignorant of what happened

In the country of my birth, Aotearoa New Zealand there was a colonial relationship with Samoa. Growing up there and going to school, I knew nothing about this and about bad things that had happened.during that time. Several years ago, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark went there for Independence celebration and made an unequivocal apology and said on behalf of the nation: “I am sorry.”

Of course it is never enough to simply say we are sorry as much as it maybe a good beginning.
If I steal your bicycle, does it help if I say sorry but dont return the bicycle. If we want to live together in peace, reparation and restitution are not optional extras..

Today we are gathered here – several generations gathered in this hall – what will successive generations say about us? Will they curse us because we behaved like ostriches – fighting rearguard battles to preserve the domination of our language and culture?

Some of us fought to the death either to preserve apartheid or to end it. Some of us did nothing – some both suffering and benefitting even if not in equal measure.

What do we say to our children – do we confuse them by our silence – or do we pass on stories which are filled with poison about “them” because we are unwilling to exorcise our own demons?.

Several years ago, I was invited to a flower show here in Stellenbosch with the theme of reconciliarion which took place in a church in the centre of Stellenbosch – it was such a joyful night – so much beauty – coloured and african people filling the church but hardly a white person in sight – invited but very few came.
I pray that this is no longer the case today.

All of us have been shaped by all that happened to our parents and grandparents.

How about those of you – the young people of today – leaders both of today and tomorrow..
You have no reason to kill each other in the way that we did – but are you living in psychological ghettoes reproducing old prejudices and outmoded traditions based on fear and ignorance? Or are you willing to work at creating new identities – as South Africans, as Southern Africans, as Africans, as human beings. - to celebrate and embrace our diversity of races and religions, gender, and sexual orientation including, without prejudice, those who are intersexed. - to celebrate being fully alive.

In 1976 a generation of young people rose up to hasten political liberation.

South Africa needs a new generation of leaders who will use every ounce of their abilities to fight poverty and insist that wealth creation and wealth distribution must go hand in hand – who will be outraged by obscene wealth in the midst of degrading poverty.

Todays new South Africa encourages greed in us as human beings – many of our latest batch of elected politicians, compete with each other to accumulate as much as possible. The patience of the masses grows thinner by the day.

There will never be peace in South Africa or the world until together we build societies where the gap between the richest and poorest grows thinner every day..

For too lomg, we South Africans have been a Good Friday people, crucifying one another.
God invites us to be an Easter Day people, recognising and acknowledging the wounds from the past whilst allowing ourselves to be God's instruments to build a just and compassionate society.

If we face the past and acknowledge it, the ghosts will fade away. Then we can embrace the future with the audacity of hope.

The letter bomb I received in 1990 was not supposed to injure me. It was supposed to kill me. Some of us needed to survive to remind all of us of what we did to each other and the consequences that many still live with today. Nevertheless, however, much more importantly I hope and pray that in some small but significant way, I can be a sign to you, that stronger than evil and hatred and death, are the forces, of gentleness, of kindness, of justice, of life, of God.

I thank you.

September 11 - Peaceful Tomorrows

2009-09-11T20:24:00.000+02:00

Dearly beloved Members of 9/11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows

On behalf of all of us at the Institute for Healing of Memories we want you to know that today
we all paused to remember each of you and your loved ones who died on that fateful day.

In the dark days, following September 11, your voices were those which remained a sign of hope in the midst of the clamour for war and revenge regardless of who were actually responsible.

We continue to be inspired by your resolute example of peacemaking.

Please accept our loving embrace

Michael Lapsley ssm

Romania

2009-07-12T16:03:00.000+02:00

What about the elephant in the room - Romania?

2009-07-12T15:41:00.000+02:00

RELIGION – HISTORY – CULTURE – SOCIETY

The influence of religion and ethnical identity on the development of values in culture and society

Interreligious and intercultural dialogue and conference in the region

of historical Scythia Minor

Muzeul De Istorie Natională Şi Arhelogie Constanţa

International Panel : Comparing the international experiences

of Reconciliation and Healing of Memories to experiences

in region with interreligious experiences over centuries

FR MICHAEL LAPSLEY,SSM

What about the elephant in the room?

Thank you very much, Thank you very much in deed. A few preliminary comments. Firstly to say it that it was an enormous privilege and honor for me to be here on my first visit to Romania. I want to appreciate the generosity and kindness from every Romanian that I have met in the time we have been here and also with my colleagues that we traveled with from different parts of the world. It is almost like a love affair that we have had together for these few days and it has been a wonderful love affair that i has been extremely rich and beneficial.

Now we had called this session and comparing International experience and the work of reconciliation and healing of memories. So presumably we are comparing of what we heard from the Romanians in these last couple of days as well as some of us when we were in the Monastery Sămbata the other day.

I have a feeling that we have only had glimpses of the elephant which is in the room. I have a feeling that we have not spoken about the elephant in the room directly. I suppose what I had hoped is that we would hear what are the historical wounds of this nation and how are they being healed. We heard in the first part of our visit from some of the monks historical stories that go back through the centuries and connected to those stories is great pain. But also an enormous depth of feeling.

We went to the Synagogue a couple of days ago and we heard that only in the last three and a half years has a conversation began in Romania about the holocaust. We have only heard about it from Jewish speakers. We haven’t heard it from anybody else. So it seems to me that it must be part of the elephant in the room.

I understand that there was a fundamental ideological change in 1989. The world heard about it and we understood that you lived under a particular ideology that had profound effects for the faith community but there has been no mention of it.

I have the privilege of working all over the world and I listen to the pain of the human family. One of the most significant things for me in every country that I go to is not what is spoken but what can’t be spoken about. So, for me one of the most memorable things I would take from my visit to Romania is what people are not yet ready to speak about. Is it because the wounds are too fresh? Is it because they are too painful?

I was deeply impressed by the depth of scholarship we heard from academics in this country yesterday - learned professors and doctors at the universities and in the seminaries. I have a question for my academic friends. And that is what is your role in healing these historic wounds? What is your role? It seems to me that we have to begin to speak about not just what people think about the past, ancient wounds, recent wounds but how people feel about them.

Martha spoke in the previous session about how in Europe there is growing Xenophobia, growing racism. My brother from Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation Bucharest and Sofia says his kids play together quite happily. The problem is not the kids, the problem is the parents. So what we talking about is how poison is passed from generation to generation. So we have to begin to speak about that poison. We have to begin talk about what the past has done to us.

One of the great lessons of history is that the past doesn’t go away. You can choose to bury and forget it or you can choose to face it and then to begin to heal it.

Now although born in New Zealand, today I am a South African citizen and I want to suggest to you that there is something very particular that South Africa brings to the world community. Something which has captured the imagination of the world. At the end of apartheid we had a couple of choices. Apartheid began legally in 1948 but had a history that stretched back through the centuries. We had a history of war, racism and dispossesion, a history in which the Christian faith played a wonderful and a very terrible role. Because of course it was in our name and in the name of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the crimes against humanity were carried out.

There was another role where Christians stood out and struggled for the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So in our context the Christian faith was one of the arenas of the struggle. What captured the imagination of the world was this.

(….But the world believed that we were going to have a bloodbath in South Africa when we had our first democratic elections. My learned academic friends had predicted for decades war, war, war - you are just going to kill each other and instead as people we decided to make peace.)

….We decided that we could live together, that we could create a society of sisters and brothers which of course will take us the next hundred years to do. We also realized that we could not create a new society unless we face our past. So South Africa more than any other country in human history looked into the face of what we had done to each other. That was through out Truth and Reconciliation Commission - a commission that was not perfect, a commission that had its own faults and weaknesses. For nearly five years every single day on television on radio in newspapers we gave space to the stories of what we have done to each other. We heard every side of the conflict. We didn’t just say these were the good guys and these were the bad guys. We listen and heard the stories. We cried together as a people. We grieved as people. As South Africans we have challenged the human family because one of the characteristics of our age is that the unfinished business of the past is coming back to haunt us.

If I want to give you a gift, my dear sisters and brothers from Romania it is this, please, please, please face the past. Don’t seek to bury it and forget it. Touch each others wounds, talk about the choices you made that you are proud of, talk about the choices you made of which you are guilty and ashamed. Tell the beautiful stories, tell the horrible stories because only in doing that, can we begin to lay a true basis of truth on which truly reconciliation will happen. It won’t help us if we simply tell the facts but we don’t speak about the pain and the poison connected to the memories.

I am sorry if I have spoken without European subtlety but with a tradition in South Africa of speaking the truth. I offer what I offer with love to this national and deep respect for all you endured, with all you have experienced, and all that in the future, you have to give to the world.

Thank you very much.

Responses to questions

Response from Fr Michael

We went through several years of negotiations after the release of Nelson Mandela and our negotiations reached a crisis because the apartheid generals said unless there was amnesty these negotiations are going nowhere. Now the South African army was the strongest army on the continent of Africa with nuclear capability. That was on one side. On the other side there was the will of the people to be free and a preparedness to die if necessary in our millions. So, our leaders looked at the spectre of an escalating civil war and they said there shall be amnesty.

Now what the apartheid generals expected and wanted was blanket general amnesty in private. What they got was individual amnesty in public. In order to get it they had to say what they had done and they had to prove that what they have done was in a political framework and also that there actions were proportionate. 7700 people asked for amnesty of whom slightly less than 10% got amnesty. Some of the families said our right to justice has been denied. They took the commission to the constitutional court . The constitutional court said yes it is true that if people get amnesty they cannot be civilly or criminally prosecuted. Therefore the right of victims to retributive justice was denied. However, because there would be reparations, there would be a form of restorative justice.

Amnesty is there in many places. I have just been working in the last two weeks in Northern Uganda. Many people there who suffered under the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) say that the head of the LRA, Joseph Kony should be forgiven. Why? Because they see no other way of stopping the war. And that for them is the bottom line.

In Latin Americans it is always an extremely controversial issue.

Now with the coming of the International Criminal Court means that there are some crimes for which there is no local jurisdiction. In fact it is not possible to give amnesty for some offences including crimes against humanity.

Even some of our own amnesties would not be valid in terms of the International Criminal Courts.

Thank you.

Fr Michael responding to questions

Our Institute is based in Cape Town, South Africa and our primary is in South Africa. We are just 11 years old and when we started we said we would work in other parts of the world by invitation. Some time when horrible things happen in societies there is a kind of rush of humanitarian organizations and people get traumatised by those who come to help them. We said we would only work where we were specifically invited. At the moment we are working in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Northern Uganda and the United States. We have also worked in Sri Lanka, Fiji, Burundi, Eritrea and other places.

The only thing that worries me a bit is that people don’t invite me to place where there is complete peace. I am still looking for those invitations.

The US needs healing - Big Time!

2009-03-28T20:27:00.001+02:00

Reflections on a short visit visit to the US

The USA is in desperate need of healing - Big time!

The Institute is on the way to opening an office in New York

For the last 10 days, Madoda Gcwadi and I have been in New York

At "the castle", we did an introductory healing of memories workshop with those who have been
incarcerated for up to 45 years including former political prisoners from Puerto Rico

We met a group of native women from Maine with whom we are exploring a partnership involving
healing of memories. They spoke inter alia about internalised oppression and the major role
in their oppression caused by the Catholic church to this day.

One evenng we met a retired General of the US military court, Jim Cullen who lead the
campaign within the military against the use of torture.

Intersections - a program out of Marble Collegiate invited us to join them
as they explore the possibilities of working with war vets especially from Afghanistan
and Iraq. How do you heal wounds that are still being created in wars that have not ended?

War veterans often feel that their experience is unique and yet war touches
every one: families and friends are often affected dramatically by the ones
who return from war changed for ever.

...And what about the other ... those we fought against.

Many Vietnam vets returned to Vietnam, to say sorry, to do penance and acts of restoratve
justice.

Larry Winter, a vietnam vet and now a drama therapist spoke of the intimate relationship
with those you have killed. "The war continues but noone is speaking about it"

Ed Tick said he went to North Vietnam and there was an absence of PTSD. Isit because the
Vietnamese saw themselves as fighting a just cause while US soldiers have not been able to convince
themselves?

Two days ago we came to the Minnesota.
The night we arrived in Minneapolis we went to speak with homeless vets at a veterans
hospital.

When I finished my spiel an African Amercan vet spoke about his experience of feeling
not second class but rather as a third class citizen - of being third class in the
military and how even returning home he was rejected by his family.
As a soldier he wasnt supposed to express his emotions -
now he cries alone.

Another said that if he was an Iraqi he too would support the insurgency.

Two days later a staff person came to a meeting and presented me with a special coin given
to those who support vets, the gift given to me at the request of the vets.

I am reading a photographic account by Riley and Monica about Riley's experience as a
nurse in Abu Ghraib prison
"..Earlier that day We treated several of the men who killed the marines...it is a
heavy burden to carry, deciding what treatment to give those who killed your brothers. When asked about
this experience, folks who have not experienced this dilemna in person frequently
respond one of two ways:

1. Of course you must treat the marines and the insurgents equally.
They are both human and deserve equal treatment.

2. Of course you dont treat them the same. It is war and they are the enemy.
Next time you had better kill them the first time.

2009-03-03T23:03:00.000+02:00

Fr Michael SSM with Bishop Nelson Onono Onweng of Northern Uganda

Military Chaplains, Northern Uganda and Zimbabwe

2009-03-03T20:59:00.006+02:00

Chief of military chaplains Conference

At the beginning of February I was a keynote speaker at the first ever world conference of chief military chaplains conference on the role of the military in post conflict healing and reconciliation.
Specifically I was asked to speak about a community based Reconciliation and Healing Model

I found myself speaking in august company following as a speaker, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Miroslav Wolf, Pumla Gobodo Madikizela, and Charles Villa Vicencio. It was a few words spoken by Archbishop Tutu which have stayed with me. The Archbishop spoke of the role of a chaplain before battle – of preparing soldiers for a situation in which the most likely outcome was either that you would die or you would kill another human being.

Somehow Tutu had cut through all the mystification which surrounds the military to speak about what is involved in their core business often carried out in our name and on behalf of all of us

There is moral ambiguity if not contradiction involved in the very concept of a military chaplain. This is particularly true if you belong to a faith community with moral assertions about the whole human family in contradistinction to absolute loyalty to a nation state. Where is the final loyalty of a chaplain? One of the sharp debates at the conference was about whether chaplains should bear arms and differing practices across the world.
Both South Africa’s Deputy Minister and the Minister of Defense suggested that chaplains have a prophetic role to play. I have my doubts as to whether there is “space “ and “permission” for that prophetic role to be played in most military formations

Northern Uganda

In November 2007 Bishop Nelson Onono Onweng invited me to the Diocese of Northern Uganda. I have just made a further, this time lightning visit to Gulu in Northen Uganda
A 20-year rebel insurgency has left thousands of all ages maimed and disabled, as well as emotionally and spiritually scarred. Many are angry at rebels, while they state a desire for peace through amnesty. The victims’ resentment, unless dealt with, will be redirected at those close to them, or become fuel for future large-scale violence. Disability, both physical and emotional, will have a negative effect on productivity and, consequently, earning potential and ability to support a family, magnifying existing cycles of poverty and fueling resentment previously mentioned.

The conflict in Northern Uganda, which has gone on for 21 years now, is led by Joseph Kony. His Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) claims to be fighting to overthrow the Government of Uganda (GoU). While Kony himself is an Acholi, he does not have the popular support of the Acholi people, who have borne the brunt of the violence. Civilians have been the primary targets, as the LRA forces have perpetrated numerous atrocities against civilians in the Acholi, Lango, West Nile and Teso regions. The low-level conflict started in 1986 accelerated furiously in 1996.

The LRA has relied upon abductions, primarily of children, for solider conscription and
sexual servitude. All other civilians became targets by virtue of not being soldiers in the LRA. Crimes against civilians include looting, burning houses, murder and mutilations among others. Victims were often chosen with arbitrary, seemingly meaningless criteria: those riding bikes or crossing a path in front of soldiers had legs amputated, In 2006, security in the North greatly improved and there is relative peace, owing to the on-going Juba Peace Talks between the Gov and the LRA in Southern Sudan. The Peace talks officially opened on the 14th of July 2006. The LRA has moved to camps in DR Congo and Southern Sudan. News reports indicate Kony is still interested in using abduction to swell his ranks, though has not recently in Uganda. Substantiated reports say attacks and abductions continue in Congo, southern Sudan and the Central Africa Republic.

It is estimated that approximately 25,000 children have been abducted by the LRA since the conflict began. The majority of the LRA insurgents are abducted individuals. The Office of the Northern Uganda Presidential Advisor reported in 2007 the number of living maimed and wounded civilian victims registered in the Acholi Subregion as 2843:

The Diocese of Northern Uganda has secured funding from the Victims Fund of the International Criminal Court for its Okweyo project.

Okweyo Project

For wounded survivors, the project offers facilitation of the “healing of memories”, a journey of healing through listening, process of reclaiming their lives through letting go of that anger and resentment from their past which is destructive. Okweyo will help, if asked, seminar participants to form small support groups, with regular meetings and volunteer leadership. Victims will benefit from long-term monitoring of and provision for their health care needs (including prosthetics). Lastly, to counter the lost livelihood that disability can bring – and thus the added, long-term resentment - victims and their children will receive scholarships and vocational training.

With victims’ permission, Okweyo will invite former LRA soldiers to listen to victims’ stories in seminars or small groups, and to tell their stories.

These three components aim to repair some what victims have lost, as a sign that they are not forgotten, and to place hope in the process of restorative justice.

We will begin to offer healing of memories workshops and train facilitators during May. Before our arrival it is plan that school children will have already received scholarships.

Visiting Zimbabwe during a time of transition February – 2009

I went to Zimbabwe to speak at the Annual meeting of the Major superiors of the Roman Catholic religious orders in Zimbabwe. I was accompanied by Madoda Gcwadi

It was the week following the swearing in of Morgan Tsvangirai as Prime Minister. I was interested to find out the mood on the streets. We were met by Thobekile Ncube and Kate Brits from Oasis, an international faith based organisation working with children and young people. We asked them both what they felt about the settlement and the new inclusive government.

The day before our arrival we had heard that an incoming deputy minister of the MDC, Roy Bennett had been arrested and there were still a number of detainees and political prisoners. Our two friends expressed the need to hope against hope. We never met anyone who believed that Mugabe could be trusted and many were concerned that the MDC would be co-opted by Mugabe.

The dominant feeling that we picked up from countless conversations was cautious optimism.
There was also a very wide spread feeling that South Africa’s former president Thabo Mbeki had not played the role of honest broker in the mediation talks.

We had an opportunity to meet with Bishop Sebastian Bakare, the Anglican Bishop of Harare. Tragically there is a rival Bishop, Nolbert Kunonga, a devout disciple of Robert Mugabe who has been ex communicated by the wider church. Because of the compromised character of the judiciary and the politicisation of the police, most Anglicans are prevented from worshipping in their churches.

About 65 people attended the day we spent with the Major Superiors. They told us that is was there first opportunity to share their feelings about events in the country and how it had impacted on their own lives and the people they serve. We did a presentation for representatives of the European Union about healing of memories as a consequence of an invitation from Ambassador Xavier Marchal.

From Harare we traveled to Bulawayo to offer a workshop with participants from all over Zimbabwe under the auspices of the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance. It is an umbrella faith based organisation that arose from pastors who could no longer keep silent in the wake of the massive destruction of homes and livelihoods caused by Operation Murambatsvina beginning in May 2005. Suffice to say that the participants of the workshop shared the layers of pain which stretched from the liberation struggle, Gukuhurundi to the present day.
We are planning a long term relationship with the Zimbabwe Christian Alliance.

International Military Chief of Chaplains Conference

2009-02-22T13:30:00.000+02:00

International Military Chief of Chaplains Conference 1-4 February, 2008
Cape Town
South Africa

Fr Michael Lapsley,SSM
Director of the Institute for Healing of Memories

A Community Based Reconciliation and Healing Model

Dear Friends

May I add my own small voice to those of my leaders who have all welcomed you here to our mother city at the tip of the mother continent of the human family.

I would like to honour you for the front line work that you do as chaplains and stress its importance for creating a peaceful world.

It is not everyday, that a former chaplain to a liberation movement, gets to speak to a world conference of military chaplains. Or for that matter someone who for years was a committed pacificist who eventually became a victim of state terrorism. Today I speak to you as someone with a profound commitment to healing wounds and transforming memories.

As I thought about what I might say to you, I couldn't help wondering what are the concerns you have as military chaplains and what are the concerns brought to you by the chaplains who are accountable to you. I wonder how you deal with the complex relationship between your identity as religious leaders who are part of worldwide faith communities, and your identity as disciplined members of military formations of a particular nation state. How do you live with what some would say is the moral ambiguity implicit in the notion of a military chaplain? Especially if we don't believe in tribal gods.

Please allow me to share a little of my own journey to illustrate what I would like to say to you today.

One way I like to think of my own journey is from being a freedom fighter to becoming a healer.

I was a member of the African National Congress and one of its chaplains for many years during the time of the armed struggle.

Our battle in this country was also a theological battle. The apartheid state claimed divine guidance The world said apartheid was a crime against humanity whilst the international Christian community said it was a heresy. Officially the churches only provided chaplains to those supporting apartheid and never to the forces for liberation. My own view was that apartheid was an option or a choice for death carried out in the name of the gospel of life. For a number of years during the time of apartheid I was on a South African Government hit list,

Three months after Nelson Mandela was released from prison, in April of 1990, I received from the South African government, a letter bomb, hidden inside the pages of two religious magazines. Among other injuries, I was left with no hands and one eye. For me it is always important to say that I had a sense that God was with me – that the great promise of the Christian scriptures had been kept – “Lo I am with you always even to the end of the age.”

What enabled me to heal? To travel towards wholeness. Excellent medical treatment both in Zimbabwe and in Australia, Yes.
But also I received messages of prayer, love and support from across the globe.

My own story was listened to, acknowledged, reverenced, recognised and given a moral content.
Every person has a story to tell. Every story needs a listener.

I would like to emphasize the difference between knowledge and acknowledgment and its importance for healing individuals, communities and nations. Families can have guilty secrets. There is abuse in a family. Everybody knows. There is knowledge but no acknowledgment, perhaps even denial. What is true of individuals and families is also true of nations.

Where torture has taken place, the torturer will tell the tortured that no mark will be left so no-one will believe that they have been tortured. Finally healing begins, when it is publically acknowledged that yes, you were tortured, and it was wrong. Torture inverts the moral order. Acknowledgment helps to recreate the moral order.

I have spent some time with the Sami people in the northern part of Sweden. There the church has acknowledged its role in oppression. However the wider community has not been educated about the history of the oppression. So knowledge and acknowledgment are both important on the journey to healing.

When I received a letter bomb, I became a victim. I physically survived so I was a survivor. I realized that if I was filled with hatred, self pity, bitterness and desire for revenge, then I would be a victim for ever.

One of South Africa's great leaders, Chief Albert Lutuli, once said, “those who think of themselves
as victims eventually become the victimizers of others.” This is as much true of what happens in intimate space as within nations and between nations. We don't have to look very far to find dramatic examples. People give themselves permission to do terrible things to others because of what was done to them. Of course sometimes there is competition for victimhood.

There is also the relationship between political violence, legitimized or not, and what happens in the privacy of the bedroom. Armed conflict comes to an end for the society or the individual but does not necessarily end in the home where there maybe self harm or harm to others in the form of domestic or sexual violence.

The life giving alternative to victims becoming victimisers is that victims should become victors, not in a militaristic sense Rather those who have become objects of history, become subjects of history once more. The key as to whether victims becomes victimisers or victors often lies with whether or not there has been acknowledgment.

Here in South Africa, we did have a considerable amount of acknowledgment in terms of the role of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission which you have just heard about.

My question was what about those who did not qualify to come to the Commission. What happened to their stories? When horrible things happen to human beings, it is normal to harbour feelings such as bitterness, hatred and desire for revenge. The problem is that those feelings destroy us. For our own sake, we have to find the way of detoxifying, of vomiting out the poison.

It was in the context of reflections of my own journey and that of the nation that some of us developed an intervention, which we call a Healing of the Memories workshop. This particular intervention takes two and a half days. We promise people one step on the road to healing. However for some the step maybe life changing especially if a story is being told for the first time.

We know that in situations of conflict there will be those who need clinical interventions. Relatively speaking this is often a very small population. There is often a much larger group of people who are sub clinical, but still have unfinished business from the past. They need a safe space where events from the past can be addressed and where they can begin to let go of destructive feelings. Even in situations where many have suffered, people often feel very isolated as they don't know what others are feeling. A new sense of belonging emerges when I tell my story and there are multiple witnesses.

I have to tell you that I am pleased that those who engage in war are affected by it, that they get PTSD, have nightmares. Wouldn't it be terrible if we could do terrible things to other human beings and remain unaffected. As a human family we are not hard wired for war We were created for peace.

Personally I am also very encouraged when I see military forces, not engaged in fighting wars, but in conflict prevention, peace keeping and peace makers.

In preparing soldiers for such a role chaplains have a major role to play. Not least when it comes to
attitudes to local populations. In this regard as well, one cannot stress enough the importance of troops, having knowledge and respect, even reverence for other peoples cultures and religious beliefs. Fundamentalist attitudes, be they Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, cultural or secular, can help foment conflict rather than prevent it. It will help the soldiers if they also know the history of present and past conflicts especially if the military of their own country may have played a role in the past.

Chaplains are people who have a concern for the spiritual and moral welfare of the armed forces. Chaplains have an important role in helping prevent human rights violations such as torture and sexual violence. Even in war it is the chaplain who must insist that the enemy is a human being.

Precisely because of their concern for their own troops the chaplains should be the first ones to object against any attempt to dilute or circumvent international treaties and laws such as the Geneva Convention, the overarching definitions of all people as either combatants, or civilians with no exceptions. Equally justifications of torture should never be entertained. Failure to do so is not only a moral betrayal but in the long term opens ones own troops to similar abuses without protection.

When a war has been popular, soldiers are regarded as heroes. When a war has been unpopular no-one wants to listen. But actually in neither case do people want to listen to the stories and give space for the feelings that soldiers carry inside them. I always remember a workshop with a young freedom fighter. He was regarded as a hero in his community for good reasons. He told us “That is not what I wish to speak about. I want to speak about that of which I am guilty and ashamed. Being just a hero did not give space for the fulness of his humanity.

Allow me to raise another issue. All of us know that chaplains, even perhaps some sitting in front of me today, as well as those who serve under our command, may carry within us enduring damage as a consequence of our own participation in conflict. We often say in our Institute, those who would be the healers of others must be on their own journey of healing. Permission and space is needed for chaplains to deal with their own stuff, and the impact of the lives we lead. Lest we too become victimizers rather than victors.

In conclusion may I just say that the Institute for Healing of Memories has worked in a variety of contexts across the globe, with combatants and civilians, in post and present conflict situations, in relation to HIV and AIDS, with refugees, prisoners, victims of war here in South Africa, in Zimbabwe, Uganda, the US, Northern Ireland, Fiji, Ausralia, Germany and the UK.

Every context is unique with its own particular history and circumstances. But at the deepest level, we are one human family, capable of beautiful and horrible deeds, sharing the same destructive and lifegiving emotions and feelings.

ends

Message to all friends of the Institute

2008-12-16T12:55:00.003+02:00

"There are two strong feelings which human beings share - anger against
injustice and hope for a better world"

I heard these words this weekend on Al Jazeera in an interview by David
Frost with legendary retired British Labour MP, Tony Benn.

I had been thinking about what I might say to you all before the end of 2008
and how I might frame my own experiences this year.

2008 was a very full year for the Institute. There were a number of
highlights It was the year we opened our office in KwaZulu Natal coordinated
by Mpendulo Nyembe and assisted by Thuthukani Shazi and later by Naomi
Anthony from Melbourne. We published the report on our 2007 conference:
Reflecting on the Journey to healing and wholeness: Toolkit for Facilitators
which has been very well received.

My own personal blog has recently been added on the Institutes's website.

It was also a year of shame for South Africans when attacks took place
against foreigners.living in our midst. Already working with refugees we
have sought to contribute practically to the fight against xenophobia. One
group of wounded victims attacked another group of wounded victims. A sign
that our own past still infects the present.

Motivated by revenge, our venerable liberation movement fired the president,
just a few months before his term ended, and dented our international
reputation. Now we have the birth of a new political formation called the
Congress of the People. As I travel the world I have been asked countless
times to explain the current situation in South Africa - I recalled how
during the negotiating period in the early 90's, we used to say that if you
were not confused you had understood nothing.

Many South Africans no longer look to politics as a source of hope

Together with my colleague, Thulani Xaba, I was in the US for six weeks
including the time of the Presidential election. It was an exciting time to
be there. Barrack Obama's election has brought renewed hope and joy to
millions of Americans and countless others across the world.

The US had become the pole cat of the world; a place occupied by the
apartheid state for many years. People of goodwill across the globe are
hoping and praying that the Obama presidency will begin a new chapter of
building a multilateral world committed to negotiations rather than war.
Time will tell

We are inching our way towards opening a new office in New York and
developing old and new partnerships across the US including work with abused
women and war veterans.

Australia made world headlines, when their Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd made
an unequivocal apology to indigenous Australians - an example the US and
others would do well to emulate...

After the US, I was privileged for the second time to listen to the often
painful stories of the Sami (the reindeer people) in the northern part of
Sweden. After a stopover with the St Ethelburgas Centre for Reconciliation
in London, I spent several memorable days in Luxembourg with ACAT -
Christian Action Against Torture as part of the celebrations of the 60th
Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Last week I spent 3 days in Harare - with all the signs of a disintegrating
failed state. Like all unjust situations of great suffering and oppression,
there is a class of beneficiaries. Horrible situations bring out the worst
and the best in human beings. Spreading cholera and frustrated soldiers
rioting are ominous signs of what may still happen in Zimbabwe.

Hopefully the day will soon dawn when Zimbabweans can begin to rebuild their
country. A key element must include addressing their layers of woundedness,
lest the cycles of hatred and violence continue across the generations: "the
elders have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge"

May 2009 also bring the people of Fiji a step closer to the return to
democracy.

Many years of unfettered greed in the financial markets is having its "come
uppance" with great suffering for many millions of people across the globe.

The financial collapse together with the consequences of climate change, has
brought into stark relief our interdependence as a human family

All the great faith traditions encourage us to value ourselves and have
compassion to others.

In 2009 we are planning a youth conference focussing on leadership and
preparing young people to live in an inclusive society. All going well 2009
will see the Institute not only doing work in South Africa but also in
Namibia, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Australia, Uganda, Canada and
the US.

On behalf of all of us at the Institute for Healing of Memories we thank you
for the opportunity to journey together yesterday, today and tomorrow.

May this time of celebration be a time of renewal for each of us.

Let our anger against injustice inspire us to act and may we all
increasingly become signs of hope for a better world .

15 December 2008

Institute for Healing of Memories
Director: Fr. Michael Lapsley SSM

Visiting Zimbabwe December 1 to 4 2008

2008-12-08T22:39:00.004+02:00

We arrived in Zimbabwe on Monday evening from Johannesburg. I was accompanied by Brother Samuel Monyamane, SSM, a member of my community who is also a healing of memories facilitator. Along with a significant number of passengers, our luggage did not arrive. A number of people told us that this is a regular occurrence. Because the plane cannot refuel in Harare they have to carry enough fuel for the return flight. To keep the plane lighter, a percentage of the luggage is deliberately left behind.

There was a constant refrain from everyone we met from the moment of arrival that things are bad, life is very difficult and getting worse by the day.

Our media in South Africa told us that the cholera epidemic is on the border with Zimbabwe and that there is now a health crisis in that part of South Africa. Only when we arrived in Zimbabwe did we learn that there is already cholera in the high density suburbs of Harare.

We learnt that there in many parts of Harare there had been no water in the taps for the last 7 months and in some places for the last seven months and two years in others.

Fear was expressed that when the rainy season comes the lack of hygenic sanitation could lead to a very rapid spreading of cholera with devastating consequences in a malnourished population

Our first meeting was with Fr Paul Gwede, of the Harare Diocese of the CPCA under Bishop Bakare. He is the parish priest of Waterfalls and has also been asked by Bishop Bakare to focus on projects. We had met briefly once before when I was a speaker at the Christian Counsellng Centre
He has a vision of setting up a Centre/Institute for human security. Because of the conflict between Bishop Kunonga (who has the support of the police) and the Anglican church, his congregation meets in the local Methodist church

Paul expressed interest in being involved in future healing of memories work in Zimbabwe.
We promised to send him a DVD.

We were joined by Christina Anderson, a storyteller married to William Anderson, the country representative of UK's Christian Aid in Zimbabwe who had assisted us in a workshop with the majority of the Angican Dioceses in Zimbabwe in December last year.

Several people told us that on the day of our arrival soldiers, frustrated that they cannot draw significant amounts of their own money from the banks had begun to riot and loot. It was suggested that this was an ominous sign of what may lie ahead for Zimbabwe in the not too distant future. Outside every bank we saw hundreds of people queuing for many hours (without safe water to drink) in soaring summer temperatures.

On our first evening we were invited for dinner by the Swedish ambassador, Sten Rylander and Kirsten a member of staff of the embassy focusing on conflict resolution. I had met him a couple of weeks previously at a Human Rights seminar in Lulea in Northern Sweden. He has been much pilloried for his outspokenness about all that has happened over the last few years in Zimbabwe. Sweden was very active in supporting the liberation struggle and has remained committed to development in Zimbabwe. It was good to get the perspective coming out of diplomatic circles, particularly someone with more than twenty years of experience in the region.

The main focus of the second day of our time in Zimbabwe was a memorial service for Hugh McCullum, an extraordinary Canadian journalist. Hugh had died in Toronto a few weeks previously. Both Sr Janice McLaughlin, a Maryknoll sister, and I had known Hugh well and we were both in New York at the time of his death. We both opted to be at the Harare memorial He and his partner Rebecca Garrett took me to the hospital the night I opened a letter bomb back in April of 1990. My visit to Zimbabwe was deliberately timed so I could be present to lead the memorial service for Hugh. It was a simple but poignant event which took place at the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC) where Hugh was employed on two separate
occasions. Some of the staff had been profoundly shaped as young writers and journalists by Hugh whilst some had joined more recently but were exposed to his vast journalistic and research output on a wide variety of issues affecting Southern Africa.

We began the event by playing the same DVD which was played at the Toronto memorial service of a recent interview of Hugh by Rebecca with a particular emphasis on the profound impact of the Biafran war and its underlying effect on Hugh's life and outlook We also read excerpts from the Globe and Mail obituary. Several staff members of SARDC spoke. Munetsi Madakufamba, Deputy Director,of SARDC spoke and also produced a cd with a collage of photos set to music. Justin Gope a well known Zimbabwean artist was present but did not speak. Professor Reg Austin spoke of the witness Hugh provided of someone living out their faith in society and of people like Hugh who had come from other quarters of the globe and made common cause with African people. Val Thorpe and Sr Janice spoke of their friendship with Hugh. I shared my own experience of both Hugh and Rebecca and all they meant and still mean in my life.

One of the people we met at the memorial was an old friend Val Thorpe with whom we met the following morning. She raised the possibility of doing healing of memories with a group of women who had suffered from political violence.

The final meeting of our short visit was with 3 members of the leadership of Zimbabwe Christian Alliance lead by the Revd Useni Sibanda. We began to explore the possibilities of a long term relationship.
We left them material including our dvd of the healing of memories process which they could use to prepare people for a workshop

We have proposed a full healing of memories workshop in February followed by a day of strategic planning to see how we can take the process forward.

Zimbabwe and Harare in particular remains a place of great contradictions. Staying as we were at a 3 star hotel you are sheltered from the increasingly grim life experienced by most Zimbabweans.

On the day of our departure we heard about the abduction of Ms Jestina Mukoko by Zimbabwean security forces from her home in Norton Harare in the morning of 3 December 2008, at approximately 5:00 am. Jestina Mukoko is the Project Director of the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP), an organisation monitoring and documenting violence and human rights abuses across the country through a network of peace observers.

As we left Zimbabwe we were also told that not only is there no medecine in the hospitals but school are closed.

For those who have ears to hear, and eyes to see there are all the hallmarks of a failed state with immense and increasing suffering for most of its citizens.

Those who have dared to speak out and resist the Mugabe regime have been treated mercilessly and brutally.

I was reminded of the words of Bertolt Brecht. "Woe is the land that has no heroes, Nay, woe is the land that needs heroes". To be a decent human being in
Zimbabwe today requires heroism

Tribute to Hugh McCullum by Father Michael Lapsley,SSM
Director of the Institute for Healing of Memories, Cape Town, South Africa
In 1983 I came to Canada on a joint SWAPO - ANC speaking tour.
That was when I first met Hugh McCullum. He was Editor of the United Church Observer and also the Chairperson of CANSAS which was a Canadian Solidarity organisation during the darkest day of apartheid

When Rebecca Garrett and Hugh moved to Zimbabwe we immediately became firm and close friends.

On April 28th 1990, Rebecca and Hugh hosted a welcome and farewell party for me.. I had just returned from another speaking tour of Canada and was about to relocate to Bulawayo. Shortly after returning to my house from the party, I opened a letter bomb. Hugh and Rebecca took me to the hospital. They helped to save my life.

At the time of the bombing I was wearing a cross of horseshoe nails which somehow disappeared.
Whilst I was in hospital Hugh and Rebecca brought me a small Coptic cross which I have worn every day since.

When I returned to Zimbabwe, from hospital treatment in Australia, it was to Hugh and Rebecca's home. When I returned from exile to live in South Africa, that farewell party was also at their home.

I have no doubt that other speakers will pay tribute to Hugh's extraordinary contribution as an advocate for Africa and all her people. Dare I suggest that it was in Africa that Hugh was most fully alive.

Thank you Hugh for all that you did in your life, in multitudinous ways, to make the world a fairer and more just place.

Thank you Hugh for all that you meant in my life.
I am a better person because I knew you.

Today I thank God for your life and pray that you rest in peace.

I pray for consolation for all who grieve your passing.

ends

St Ethelburgas Centre for Reconciliation London UK November 2008

2008-12-08T21:39:00.002+02:00

Obama, Healing of Memories and Hope

2008-11-09T09:39:00.000+02:00

I started to cry during the speech of John McCain accepting defeat and congratulating Barack Obama as the President elect of the United States.

The tears continued as we watched Obama speak. Obama said "tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope."

And he continued:

"This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one thats on my mind tonight is about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. Shes a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing - Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.

She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her could n't vote for two reasons - because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.

And tonight, I think about all that shes seen throughout her century in America - the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we cant, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.

At a time when womens voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.

When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs and a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.

When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.

She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that We Shall Overcome. Yes we can.

A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. Yes we can.

America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves - if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made"

The impossible had become possible

If you had said to me two years ago that it would be possible for an African American to become the President of the United States, I would have said "Dream on, not in the US."

I have been in the USA since September 29 accompanied by Thulani Xaba, one of our faciltators from KwaZulu Natal. We began in Kansas city, spent nearly a month in New York went to Minneapolis, then to Los Angeles and finally flew to Oakland in California on election day

After watching Barack Obama's acceptance speech before a rapturous crowd in Chicago we drove to where we were staying, passing numerous street parties and ecstatic people, dancng in the street.

In California the overwhelming joy was mixed with great pain for many as many of the same voters who supported Obama had voted to reverse the right of same gender loving person to marry. More

than 18000 people had already committed matrimony under the new provisions and are not sure what will be the status of their marriage certificates. How terrible that rights which have been given are then taken away.

I remembered another election when the world stood still – 1994 – South Africa's first democratic election when Nelson Mandela became the president.

1994 was the second time I voted – the first time was in Australia, in December of 1972 – on a ticket of taking Australian soldiers out of Vietnam.

Now a black person was finally becoming president of the United States. McCain, Obama and Bush made reference to the history of slavery in their speeches immediately following the election victory.

Perhaps finally the US is edging towards acknowledging its past but there is still a road to be travelled both in relation to slavery and to Native Americans.

I have a sense that what has happened in the US has brought healing of memories more on to the world stage than ever before.

3 days after Obama's victory we began a healing of memories workshop at the Wright Institute – a Psychology Graduate school in Berkely, California. The events of the previous days provided a frame for the workshop. Noone was in any doubt about how the nation and its past had affected us as individual

During the final liturgy our colleague Steve Karakashian read the following letter from Alice Walker to Barrack Obama.

Open letter from Alice Walker to Barrack Obama

Dear Brother Obama,

You have no idea, really, of how profound this moment is for us. Us being the black people of the Southern United States. You think you know, because you are thoughtful, and you have studied our history. But seeing you deliver the torch so many others before you carried, year after year, decade after decade, century after century, only to be struck down before igniting the flame of justice and of law, is almost more than the heart can bear. And yet, this observation is not intended to burden you, for you are of a different time, and, indeed, because of all the relay runners before you, North America is a different place. It is really only to say: Well done. We knew, through all the generations, that you were with us, in us, the best of the spirit of Africa and of the Americas. Knowing this, that you would actually appear, someday, was part of our strength. Seeing you take your rightful place, based solely on your wisdom, stamina and character, is a balm for the weary warriors of hope, previously only sung about.

I would advise you to remember that you did not create the disaster that the world is experiencing, and you alone are not responsible for bringing the world back to balance. A primary responsibility that you do have, however, is to cultivate happiness in your own life. To make a schedule that permits sufficient time of rest and play with your gorgeous wife and lovely daughters. And so on. One gathers that your family is large. We are used to seeing men in the White House soon become juiceless and as white-haired as the building; we notice their wives and children looking strained and stressed. They soon have smiles so lacking in joy that they remind us of scissors. This is no way to lead. Nor does your family deserve this fate. One way of thinking about all this is: It is so bad now that there is no excuse not to relax. From your happy, relaxed state, you can model real success, which is all that so many people in the world really want. They may buy endless cars and houses and furs and gobble up all the attention and space they can manage, or barely manage, but this is because it is not yet clear to them that success is truly an inside job. That it is within the reach of almost everyone.

I would further advise you not to take on other people's enemies. Most damage that others do to us is out of fear, humiliation and pain. Those feelings occur in all of us, not just in those of us who profess a certain religious or racial devotion. We must learn actually not to have enemies, but only confused adversaries who are ourselves in disguise. It is understood by all that you are commander in chief of the United States and are sworn to protect our beloved country; this we understand, completely. However, as my mother used to say, quoting a Bible with which I often fought, "hate the sin, but love the sinner." There must be no more crushing of whole communities, no more torture, no more dehumanizing as a means of ruling a people's spirit. This has already happened to people of color, poor people, women, children. We see where this leads, where it has led.

A good model of how to "work with the enemy" internally is presented by the Dalai Lama, in his endless caretaking of his soul as he confronts the Chinese government that invaded Tibet. Because, finally, it is the soul that must be preserved, if one is to remain a credible leader. All else might be lost; but when the soul dies, the connection to earth, to peoples, to animals, to rivers, to mountain ranges, purple and majestic, also dies. And your smile, with which we watch you do gracious battle with unjust characterizations, distortions and lies, is that expression of healthy self-worth, spirit and soul, that, kept happy and free and relaxed, can find an answering smile in all of us, lighting our way, and brightening the world.

We are the ones we have been waiting for.

In Peace and Joy,