Forgiveness

Talk 2 - Jo Berry & Pat Magee

When Sir Anthony Berry MP was killed in the IRA Brighton Bombing during the 1984 Tory Party Conference, his daughter Jo was thrown into a conflict she knew very little about.

Since then she has visited Ireland many times and worked with victims and former combatants from all sides.

In November 2000 she met Pat Magee, the man responsible for her father’s death.

Belfast-born Pat Magee, former IRA activist, was given multiple life sentences for the Brighton Bombing. Released under the Good Friday Agreement in 1999, he has since been actively involved in peace work.

The Forgiveness Project

The Forgiveness Project works at a local, national and international level to help build a future free of conflict and violence by healing the wounds of the past.

By collecting and sharing people’s stories, and delivering outreach programmes, The Forgiveness Project encourages and empowers people to explore the nature of forgiveness and alternatives to revenge.

Forgiveness

Talk 1: Forgiveness Project, Camilla Carr

In April 1997, Camilla Carr and her boyfriend, Jon James went to Chechnya to set up a rehabilitation centre for traumatised war-children.

Three months later they were taken hostage by Chechen rebels.

Their ordeal lasted 14 months, during which Camilla was repeatedly raped by one of her jailers.

Times article, 21 Apr 2008

Gp 20: James Bulger

In 1993, two ten year old boys abducted, tortured and murdered toddler James Bulger.

After serving eight years in prison, the parole board recommended the release of the two boys, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables.

This caused great public outcry and there was a strong desire for retribution, particularly among the Bulger’s local community in Merseyside.

There was a real fear that the boys could be attacked and murdered upon release. For this reason they were given new identities and the press was banned from revealing their whereabouts.

Gp 1: The Lord's Prayer

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those...

The Lord's Prayer – this is probably the best-known prayer in Christianity.

It appears in the New Testament in both the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke. During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave instructions about how to pray, he included the line: ‘Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.’

This is somewhat in contrast to a quote in the Old Testament in Leviticus, which was the root of our now well-known expression ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’ which suggests that for every wrong done there should be a compensating measure of retribution. Jesus tackles this in the Gospel of Matthew, when he tells His disciples to turn the other cheek.

Gp 2: Philip Lawrence

In December 1995, Philip Lawrence, the headmaster of St George’s School, London was stabbed to death outside the gates of his school, when he went to the aid of a pupil, William Njoh, who was being attacked by a gang. One of the gang members, Learco Chindamo, punched Lawrence and then stabbed him in the chest. He died later that day. Chindamo was convicted of murder in October 1996, and jailed indefinitely. He has always claimed that he was the victim of mistaken identity, and that the real killer was another boy who had borrowed his jacket, although he does not deny that he was present.

Letting Evil Prosper

"All that is needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing"

Attributed to the Irish statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke, 1729 - 1797

Gp 4: 7/7 Rev Julie Nicholson

I can't forgive.

7/7 Rev Julie Nicholson – on 7 July 2005, Jenny Nicholson, 24, was killed in the London bombings, by the suicide bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan. Her mother, the Rev Julie Nicholson resigned from her post as she felt she could no longer fulfill her duty to preach forgiveness and felt unable to celebrate communion for her parishioners. Three years later, Rev Nicholson is still unable to forgive the men who took her daughter’s life.

Guardian article

Gp 5: Beslan School

A community, and a Nation, that can't forgive.

Beslan School – on 1 September, 2004 at a school in Beslan, a town located in the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Russia, a group of armed rebels, demanding an end to the Second Chechen War, took more than 1,100 people (including 777 children) hostage.

On the third day of the standoff, Russian security forces stormed the building. A series of explosions shook the school, followed by a gun-battle between the hostage-takers and Russian security forces.

At least 334 hostages were killed, including 186 children. Hundreds more were wounded or reported missing.

Questions about the government's management of the crisis have persisted, including disinformation and censorship of the media regarding the nature and content of negotiations with the militants, the responsibility for the bloody outcome, and the government's use of possibly excessive force.

Gp 6: Norman Kember

Iraqi hostage who called for Peace and still forgives.

Norman Kember - in November 2005, Norman Kember, aged 74, travelled to Iraq with the international peace organisation, Christian Peacemaker Teams.

Within days he had been taken hostage along with three other members of the group. By the time the SAS rescued them 117 days later, one member of their group, Tom Fox, had been murdered. Kember is part of the forgiveness project and states that he has never had any animosity towards his captors.

BBC Story

Gp 7: Knives are for self-protection.

Protection from what - and at what cost.

In July this year 5 young people were stabbed to death in one day. A triple stab victim, Phil Hall, 18, who was stabbed for the first time when he was just 12, is now an anti-weapons campaigner. His message is: drop the knives or risk ending up dead.

Criminologist Kevin Stenson, from Middlesex University's Crime and Conflict Research Centre, said that under sixteens fear being attacked with knives, and that they carry them because they are scared and to gain respect.

Legally, shops cannot sell a knife to anyone under the age of eighteen and the maximum penalty for an adult carrying a knife has been raised to four years in prison. At an anti-violence rally, Mark Prince, father of stab victim Kiyan, 15, spoke of forgiveness for the person who stabbed his son to death.

Guardian article: 24 Oct 2008

Gp 8: Guns. Drugs. Anger. Violence.

The rich cocktail of London's streets.

Guns, Drugs, Anger, Violence – who or what is to blame for the increase in violence on Britain’s streets? Is it possible to forgive those involved?

Gun-related crime kills, maims and intimidates, and is frequently linked to gang activity and the illegal drugs trade in the UK.

Britain has some of the toughest gun laws in the world, and has done a great deal to choke off the supply but as long as there is a demand for guns there will always be someone willing to find a way to provide them, at a price.

Operation Trident, is a Metropolitan Police initiative set up to investigate and inform communities of gun crime in London, with special attention being placed on shootings relating to the illegal sales of drugs. The initiative was set up in March 1998 following a series of shootings in the London boroughs of Lambeth and Brent.

The Met’s statistics show 246 incidents of 'Trident gun crime' were recorded between April 2007 and March 2008, 8.8 per cent above the 226 incidents seen in the preceding 12 months.

John Steele, crime correspondent for the Daily Telegraph is worried about the growth of a small but lawless sub-group of youths for whom guns, crack cocaine, violence, violent rap lyrics, and Yardie-style gangster culture, have become a way of life.

BBC Link, South Africa's gun culture

Understanding Grief and Anger

Emotions run high

Why Forgive

What does it achieve.

Gp 9: Terry Waite

In January 1987 Terry Waite, a Church of England envoy, went to Beirut, Lebanon, to negotiate the release of several hostages being held there. But he ended up a hostage himself and was held captive, for 1,760 days before being released on 18 November 1991.

For four years of his captivity he was held in solitary confinement, and also had to endure torture and a mock execution. His experiences have strengthened his belief in the necessity of forgiveness: ‘A part of the key to entering into forgiveness is understanding.

If one can understand why people behave as they do, then often the road to forgiveness is opened. Not only is forgiveness essential for the health of society, it is also vital for our personal well-being.’

Gp 10: The Prodigal Son

And the son who didn't need forgiveness

The Prodigal Son – this is one of the best-known parables told by Jesus and documented in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus tells the story of a man who has two sons. The younger demands his share of his inheritance while his father is still living, and goes off to a distant country where he squanders his money, and eventually has to take work as a pig herder.

There he comes to his senses, and decides to return home and throw himself on his father's mercy and ask him for a job as a servant. But when he returns home, his father greets him with open arms, will not listen to his repentance and kills a fatted calf to celebrate his return.

The older brother becomes jealous at the favoured treatment of his faithless brother and upset at the lack of reward for his own faithfulness. The father, who had been wronged, was forgiving. But the eldest son, who had not been wronged, was unforgiving.

Gp 3: Amish Shooting

The community forgives.

Amish Shootings – on 2 October 2006, a milk tanker driver, Charles Roberts shot and killed five girls and wounded seven more before shooting himself in an Amish school in the US state of Pennsylvania. He entered the one-room school and told everyone except the girls to leave. Roberts then made the girls line up in front of the blackboard, where he tied their feet using wire or plastic cuffs. He had suggested in his suicide notes that he had dreams of molesting girls, an act which he claims he did 20 years previously at the age of 12. The Amish community, who reject many types of modern technology in their effort to lead a life true to holy scriptures, responded to the tragedy with forgiveness, with members of the community even comforting Roberts’ relatives.

Gp 12: Columbine High School 1999

Student runs amock with a gun.

Columbine High School massacre, 1999 – on 20 April 1999 two students shot and killed twelve of their fellow students and a teacher at their high school in Colorado. Twenty three others were wounded.

The two perpetrators then committed suicide which meant that there was never a trial in which the families of the victims could confront the killers. The massacre provoked debate regarding gun control laws, high school cliques, bullying and video games. Some reports claimed that the perpetrators had been bullied and that this had been a motivating factor in their actions.

Gp 11: The Troubles in Northern Ireland

The Troubles. Protestants and Catholics.

In 1968 violence erupted in Northern Ireland after a series of demonstrations calling for equal civil rights for all. Subsequently, paramilitary organisations such as the Irish Republican Army (IRA), the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) clashed, with the result that by the end of 1993 there had been 3,112 deaths.

The largest group to suffer was the civilian population. One particularly controversial incident was Bloody Sunday in 1972 when British soldiers fired on a Catholic demonstration in Londonderry, killing several civilians. Throughout the Troubles Northern Ireland became increasingly divided along sectarian lines, with Catholics and Protestants leading separate lives.

Wikipedia: The Troubles BBC History:The Troubles

Gp 13: 9/11 - New York, Washington

The War on Terror begins in earnest.

9/11 – on 11 September 2001, al-Qaeda launched a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks on the USA. Nineteen Islamic terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger aeroplanes.

Two were crashed into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York City. A third was crashed into the Pentagon. The fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the aeroplane, which the hijackers had redirected towards Washington D.C.

Over 3,000 people died in the attacks. The overwhelming majority of casualties were civilians, including nationals of over ninety countries.

The USA responded by launching a war on terrorism, which included invading Afghanistan to depose the Taliban, who had harboured al-Qaeda terrorists. Many countries, including the USA and Britain, enacted strengthened anti-terrorism legislation which restricted civil liberties and human rights.

Jesus on the Cross

Forgive them for they know not what they do.

Gp 14: Nazi Hunters

Never Forgive. Never Forget.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_hunter

Nazi Hunters – this is the term used to describe people who pursued Nazi criminals after the Second World War, in an attempt to bring them to justice for war crimes and crimes against humanity. One of the most prominent Nazi hunters was Simon Wiesenthal.

Following four and half years in German concentration camps during the war, Wiesenthal dedicated most of his life to tracking down and gathering information on fugitive Nazis. He also led the campaign to ensure that West Germany did not impose a statute of limitations on Nazi war crimes.

Among the estimated 1,100 war criminals he tracked down, his more famous cases were those of Franz Stangl, the commandant of the Treblinka and Sobibor death camps; Karl Silberbauer, the Gestapo officer who arrested Anne Frank; and Franz Murer, who played an important role in the murder of tens of thousands of Jews in Vilnius, Lithuania.

His book The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness (1970) deals with the question of forgiveness, asking whether a Jew under Nazi occupation could have and should have forgiven a dying Nazi who had confessed his crimes. Wiesenthal posed the question to leading Jewish and non-Jewish philosophers whose responses constitute the second half of the book. Of himself he said ‘I am not a hater’ and described his aim as ‘justice, not vengeance’.

Gp 15: Holocaust Victims

Forgive those who persecute us.

The Holocaust refers to the annhilation of more than sixteen million people by the Nazis and their collaborators between 1933 and 1945 in the numerous extermination and concentration camps, such as Sobibor, Treblinka, Chelmno, Belzec, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bergen-Belsen and Ravensbrück.

Of the victims, more than six million were Jews (67% of European Jewry). Other victims included ten million Ukranian, Polish and Russian civilians and prisoners of war; Romanies; homosexuals; and socialists. These people were variously starved, tortured, experimented on and worked to death. Hundreds of thousands were executed in gas chambers, shot or hanged.

Gp 16: Gerry + Kate McCann

Kate and Gerry McCann – the McCann’s daughter, Madeleine, went missing from the family’s hotel apartment in Portugal in May 2007. Kate and Gerry had been eating dinner at a restaurant one hundred yards from the apartment.

Many in the media blamed them for being irresponsible parents, arguing that they should never have left their children unattended. The media campaign against the McCanns intensified when some newspapers suggested that they had been involved in the disappearance of their daughter.

Madeleine McCann has never been found and there are no official suspects in the case.

Gp 17: Caroline King-Onzila

In September 2008 Oliver King-Onzila became the twenty-sixth teenager to be murdered in London since January, when he was stabbed to death outside a nightclub.

Only days after the incident, his grieving mother was able to say that she had forgiven his killer:

'Whoever can take a knife and use it to hurt someone else is possessed by demons and needs help. I forgive that person because my faith is strong, but only Jesus can help them.'

Gp 18: Apologising for Slavery

Of all European countries, Britain played the largest role in the slave trade.

Between 1701 and 1800, 2.5 million of the 6.13 million people transported to the Americas as slaves were sent in British ships. The conditions aboard the slave ships were appalling. Slaves were shackled in pairs with leg irons in cramped, unsanitary conditions.

The death rate was high: between 1680 and 1688, for example, the British Royal African Company lost nearly a quarter of all slaves shipped from Africa. Slaves led harsh lives, working long hours for no money and receiving brutal punishments. The legacies of the slave trade include racism and poverty.

Gp 19: South Africa - Truth and Reconciliation

For decades South Africa was subject to the system of apartheid. This segregated the majority black population from the white settlers. Black South Africans were forced to live in poverty and were discriminated against in all areas of their lives, such as education, employment and access to amenities.

Perhaps the most famous opponent of this system is Nelson Mandela, who spent twenty six years in prison for his anti-apartheid actions. Mandela was released in 1990 and in 1994 he was elected President of South Africa.

To help heal the divisions caused by the system of apartheid, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up under the 1995 Promotion of National Unity and Reconciliation Act.

This investigated the issues of human rights violations, reparations and amnesty. It allowed the victims of apartheid and their families to give testimony. Perpetrators from both sides of the apartheid divide were investigated.

In August 1996, F.W. De Klerk appeared before the Commission and asked for forgiveness for the years of apartheid. In total, over 21,000 victims gave testimony.

Forgiveness - A Conference - Wed 12 Nov 2008

This will be our 13th annual VIth Form conference - held jointly with St Helen's. This year's topic will be "Forgiveness"