Institute for Healing of Memories

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

noreply@blogger.com (Fr. Michael SSM) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:22:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Fr. Michael SSM) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:15:00 +0000

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:.

noreply@blogger.com (Fr. Michael SSM) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:03:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Fr. Michael SSM) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:24:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Fr. Michael SSM) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 14:03:00 +0000

What about the elephant in the room - Romania?

noreply@blogger.com (Fr. Michael SSM) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:41:00 +0000

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!

noreply@blogger.com (Fr. Michael SSM) — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 18:27:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Fr. Michael SSM) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:03:00 +0000

Fr Michael SSM with Bishop Nelson Onono Onweng of Northern Uganda

Military Chaplains, Northern Uganda and Zimbabwe

noreply@blogger.com (Fr. Michael SSM) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 18:59:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Fr. Michael SSM) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 11:30:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Fr. Michael SSM) — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:55:00 +0000

"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

noreply@blogger.com (Fr. Michael SSM) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:39:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Fr. Michael SSM) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 19:39:00 +0000

Obama, Healing of Memories and Hope

noreply@blogger.com (Fr. Michael SSM) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 07:39:00 +0000

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,