By:Cameron Cassar
When we think about what it takes to foster social transformation, the complex roles of apology, repentance, and forgiveness are often overlooked or used in a way that can be harmful to a process. On April 14th, the Mary Hoch Center for Reconciliation held the third event in our spring webinar series “The Role of Apology, Repentance, and Forgiveness in Social Transformation”. The goal of this webinar was to learn from global experiences to inform current political forgiveness efforts towards racial justice, transformation, and healing in the United States.
Professor Azza Karam opening up the webinar.
“Our ability to forgive comes from that very clear understanding that the very survival and joy that can come in life comes from the understanding that we are a part of one another, that which hurts one, hurts all.” said Professor Azza Karam (Secretary General of Religions for Peace). Her words opened up the first panel of the webinar that she would be moderating. This first panel focused on the role of international faith groups and featured distinguished guests such as: Archbishop Martin Blaise Nyaboho (Archbishop of the Anglican Church of Burundi), Dr. Tecla Namachanja Wanjala (Founder of Shalom Centre for Counseling & Development and former Chairperson of Kenya’s Truth, Justice & Reconciliation Commission) and Ms. Shamsa Abubakar Fadhil (Organizing Secretary of the Mombasa Women of Faith Network)
Shamsa Abubakar Fadhil, is a well known ambassador for peace within religious circles in Kenya and was recognized as a Global Peace Champion by the Global Peace Foundation earlier this year. She reflected on her experiences within the domain of apology, repentance, and forgiveness from a religious perspective and broke down it’s three elements in her view “Acknowledging how your actions have caused harm to another person, apologize sincerely and truly and make a vow or promise to not repeat these actions which have caused harm. This type of apology, repentance, and forgiveness is healthy, creates healing and leaves room for new relationships to be forged.”
Dr. Tecla Namachanja Wanjala is a globally recognized peacebuilding practitioner who was a nominee for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. She shared anecdotes of how apology, repentance, and forgiveness played a pivotal role within communities in her home country of Kenya. “What I’ve learned is that when violent actions involve demonization of each other as communities, repentance, apology, and forgiveness calls for humanization of each other. It’s a highly spiritual and emotional endeavor.” She emphasized that it is often a painful process because people have to come to terms with the fact that they have caused harm to others and others have to find it within their hearts to accept the apology of those who may have committed violent acts against them or their family. This is the only way in which the community can begin to transform itself.
““What I’ve learned is that when violent actions involve demonization of each other as communities, repentance, apology, and forgiveness calls for humanization of each other. It’s a highly spiritual and emotional endeavor.””
Archbishop Martin Blaise Nyaboho of the Anglican Church of Burundi, a well respected figure within the African faith community, shared with us some of his experiences in dealing with this work and how it has specifically shaped his home country of Burundi. He touched upon how there has been a lot of violence committed within his home country since the country gained its independence in 1962. He went on to explain how in 1996, there were some young people sent to kill him which forced him to flee the country with his family. He shared with us that when he returned to the country a few years later, he sought out these same individuals and found it within himself to forgive them because they did not realize the full scope of their actions. He told us that he went on to become good friends with some of these men and a few eventually turned to a life of religious work. The Archbishop’s anecdote was extremely poignant and went a long way in showing just how powerful apology, repentance, forgiveness can be when it comes to reconciling differences.
Dr. Charles Davidson introducing the second panel
The second panel was moderated by Dr. Charles Davidson, a professor at the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution. This panel focused more on the intersection between faith groups and grassroots movements to foster social change and featured acclaimed panelists such as: Ms. Anneke Rabe (Founder of Victorious Women in Christ) Reginald James (Worship and Art Pastor at Christ Life Cathedral), and Dr. Eileen Borris (Global Consultant in Political Forgiveness)
Dr. Eileen Borris providing expert insight into this field of work.
Dr. Eileen Borris is a world-renowned expert on conflict resolution and the role of political apology. Dr. Borris has countless experiences working with political apologies in her work and she was able to provide insight into how these apologies look and the power that they have in reconciling differences between outgroups who have been at odds with each other. Dr. Borris broke down the importance of political apologies and left us with some powerful words.
““We as a humanity need to learn about the importance of commitment to ourselves and to each other. The power and importance of an apology lies in its potential to the victims and acknowledgment of their human worth and dignity.””
Ms. Anneke Rabe is a former South African school teacher who has dedicated her life to addressing the inequities that occurred during Apartheid in South Africa. She believed that one of the biggest problems with Apartheid was the fact that there were not enough white men and women who stood against the evil system especially within the church communities. Anneke stated this was a huge flaw in the church today, that “We are happy to love those that worship and look like us but that is not what Jesus taught. He said that we need to love our neighbor, the one that doesn’t look, act or behave like we do.” Anneke believes that repentance is a key component of any hopes of truly achieving racial healing.
Reggie James discussing the role of faith communities in this work.
Reginald James is a worship and art pastor at Christ Life Cathedral in Arkansas who has seen the impact that the American church can have on healing. In regards to what it would take to help the country heal from our troubled past, Reggie stated that “If we go down the path of healing, we must be willing to submit our longings and our desires to the teachings of the Most High.” Reggie believes that faith communities play a crucial role in advancing racial healing within the country by being “agents of compassion”.
Apology, repentance, and forgiveness are all important aspects of peacebuilding and reconciliation processes and we need to not only recognize the significance of these processes but also make sure that we are utilizing them correctly. This is why events such as these that incorporate faith communities and grassroots movements are so important because they provide us with some of the critical insights to achieve the future that we dream of. There is no hope of racial healing without properly employing apology, repentance, and forgiveness efforts within this work.
You can watch the full recording of the event here.
You can read the Religions for Peace Summary Report here.