THE PEACE APPEAL FOUNDATION
  • Home
  • About Us
    • History & Shared Values
    • People & Partners
    • Timeline
  • Our Work
    • What We're Learning
    • Processes We Support >
      • Processes We Support
      • Burma/Myanmar
      • Cyprus
      • Lebanon
      • Nepal
      • Sri Lanka
      • South Africa
      • Syria
      • USA
      • Zimbabwe
    • Children's Voices
  • Knowledge Resources
    • Recent Publications
    • P&D Platform >
      • P&D Platform
      • P&D Platform Facebook
    • Children and War
    • Decentralization
    • Federalism
    • Healing and Reconciliation
    • Land Reform
    • Natural Resources
    • Security Sector Reform
    • Music4Peace
  • Donate
  • Blog - Culture of Peace
  • Contact Us
    • Contact Us
    • Work With Us

A New Beginning: Forgiveness & Hope

1/4/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture
Peace 2015 Lanterns: Paper lanterns in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome, Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. Credits: AP/CC BY

​In this season during which people of many cultures and faiths celebrate renewal, we share with you a poem written by Fr Michael Weeder, a board member of the Peace Appeal Foundation.   Michael is Dean of St. George's Cathedral in Cape Town, a church once led by Archbishop Tutu. The poem was written in Helsinki, Finland at a conference on the role of dialogue in peace and national change processes.   It was started in the hours after the attacks in Paris and Beirut.   

Michael's poem echoes the work and values of many, including Aung San Suu Kyi's recent remarks on the need to reach out to Myanmar's former rulers, as well as to the words of Archbishop Tutu and his daughter Mpho, in their powerful recent book, The Book of Forgiving: The Fourfold Path for Healing Ourselves and Our World. Its theme of forgiveness is central to the work of peacemakers everywhere, to the possibility of renewal more broadly, and to hopes for peaceful coexistence in our tumultuous world. 
When We Forgive

When we forgive,
the shrapnel of the bombs -

assigned to Paris, today
Beirut, yesterday
Palestine, Syria...
every other day

will never pierce
will never pierce

our soft, invincible hearts
when we forgive.



(Helsinki, Monday, 16 November 2015)
The Very Reverend Michael Weeder
 
Wishing you a peaceful and blessed new year filled with hope.
0 Comments

    BLOG:
    ​
    Culture of Peace

    ​

    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Appeal For Peace
    Books
    Burma/Myanmar
    Common Spaces
    Conflict Assessment
    Cyprus
    Infographics
    Lebanon
    Media And Conflict
    National Dialogue Conference
    National Dialogues
    Nepal
    News
    Nobel Laureates
    Nobel Prize
    Peace And Dialogue Platform
    Peace Appeal Updates
    Peace Building
    Peace Changemakers
    Peace Resources
    Religion
    Sri Lanka
    Syria
    Truth And Reconciliation
    USA

    Archives

    December 2019
    November 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    August 2018
    December 2017
    September 2017
    May 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    September 2016
    May 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    January 2012
    May 2011
    December 2010
    August 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    February 2009
    January 2009
    December 2008
    September 2008
    August 2008
    June 2008
    May 2008
    November 2007
    September 2007
    December 2006
    November 2006
    October 2006
    October 2004
    November 2001
    December 2000
    November 2000
    January 2000
    December 1999
    September 1999
    June 1999
    October 1995
    April 1983

    RSS Feed

Copyright 2019, Peace Appeal Foundation.  All rights reserved.
  • Home
  • About Us
    • History & Shared Values
    • People & Partners
    • Timeline
  • Our Work
    • What We're Learning
    • Processes We Support >
      • Processes We Support
      • Burma/Myanmar
      • Cyprus
      • Lebanon
      • Nepal
      • Sri Lanka
      • South Africa
      • Syria
      • USA
      • Zimbabwe
    • Children's Voices
  • Knowledge Resources
    • Recent Publications
    • P&D Platform >
      • P&D Platform
      • P&D Platform Facebook
    • Children and War
    • Decentralization
    • Federalism
    • Healing and Reconciliation
    • Land Reform
    • Natural Resources
    • Security Sector Reform
    • Music4Peace
  • Donate
  • Blog - Culture of Peace
  • Contact Us
    • Contact Us
    • Work With Us