Annual Diakonia Award

awarded on 14th August March 2008

to

Fr Michael Lapsley, SSM

“All people share responsibility for the past of their countries and all people have a responsibility for creating a different kind of future. In the Judaeo Christian tradition we go so far as to make the bold claim that all human beings are made in the image and likeness of God. Furthermore, for those of us who are Christians, we are the followers of the tortured one. We follow Jesus who said “As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.” This is a quote from Fr Michael’s address at the Second Michael Hirschfield Memorial Address, delivered in Wellington, New Zealand on December 4, 2000.

Father Michael Lapsley was born in New Zealand and was ordained and joined the religious order, the Society of the Sacred Missions, in Australia. In 1973 he arrived in Durban as an undergraduate student and shortly thereafter, as a young Anglican priest, he became chaplain to both black and white students at the very height of apartheid oppression. Then came 1976, the year of the Soweto uprising, in which many black school children were shot and killed. As National Chaplain, Father Michael began to speak out on behalf of students who had been shot, detained, and tortured. In September of the same year, he was expelled from the country.

He went to live in Lesotho where he continued his studies and began a new journey as a member of the ANC and chaplain to the liberation movement in exile, travelling the world to mobilize particularly the faith community to oppose apartheid and support the struggle for freedom. After the Maseru Massacre in 1982, he moved to Zimbabwe and it was here that in April 1990, 3 months after Nelson Mandela's release from prison, he was sent a letter bomb from South African operatives, hidden between two Christian magazines. In the blast, he lost both hands, the sight of one eye, and was seriously burned. In his own words Fr Michael recalls that “the irony is that the only automatic weapon I have ever used is my own tongue. They eventually took away my hands and left my weapon reasonably intact.”

Fr Michael’s journey towards healing now took a new turn. Returning to Zimbabwe after his convalescence in New Zealand, he remarked to his Bishop that he thought he could be more of a priest with no hands than with two hands. “My brokenness” he said “is visible; for most people it is invisible”.

In 1993 Fr Michael became Chaplain of the Trauma centre for Victims of Violence and Torture in Cape Town. His work lies in the field of the healing of memories – creating safe and sacred spaces where people can begin the journey of acknowledging and letting go of that which is destructive inside them and taking from the past that which is life giving – in other words, redeeming the past. This led to the establishment, in 1998, of the Institute for Healing of Memories in Cape Town, and more recently in Natal, where the work focuses on the effects of the political violence in this province, as well as the stories people tell who are affected and infected by HIV and AIDS. Opportunities have also been created for refugees and asylum seekers in our midst to be heard – the stories of the wars on our continent and of our own xenophobia.

Fr Michael Lapsley is a prolific writer and a gifted theologian. He is a renowned orator and a humble servant. He presents to us all an example of our neighbour, reconciled and reconciling. He has shown each of us what it means to take personal responsibility for our own reconciliation, at every level. It gives me great honour to call on Fr Michael Lapsley to receive the 3rd Annual Diakonia Award in recognition of a life surrendered and dedicated to reconciliation, a right, but our responsibility.