healing

Sermon: the 26th Sunday after Pentecost, Year A
The Community Church of Wilmette
November 9, 2008

Trimmed and Burning

Did you ever think that you would see the day?
Did you ever think that you would see the day?
Did you ever think that an African-American man would be elected President of the United States of America in our lifetime?

I am not sure that I truly believed it. I still have images of the intense segregation of my home town, Richmond. I still struggle with the deep divisions and segregation that exists in Chicago. Those wounds run so deep. The struggles and the blight of racism is still so very real...even here in the so-called enlightened north.

I was so disappointed the day that I realized how divided Chicago was. I came here thinking Chicago would show me a different way of living in a multi-racial community.

I never thought I would ever see an African-American elected to the highest office in our country. Never.

Please join the Haiti Solidarity Network of the Northeast and Pax Christi NJ as we host Fr. Michael Lapsley on Tuesday October 14th at 7:30 pm at St. Patrick's Theater, 509 Bramhall Ave, Jersey City, NJ.

In April 1990, while living in exile from South Africa, Fr. Michael Lapsley became a victim of the violence of apartheid when he received a letter bomb. He lost both his hands, an eye, and his eardrums were shattered.

After leaving the hospital he became an international advocate for reconciliation, forgiveness and restorative justice. In 1992 he returned to South Africa to found the Trauma Center for Victims of Violence and Torture in Cape Town.

His organization provided assistance to Bishop Desmond Tutu and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which is credited with putting South Africa on a path toward healing. It serves as a model for other countries including Rwanda, Guatemala and Argentina.

He is now Director of the Institute for Healing of Memories, Cape Town, South Africa.

The Healing of Memories method began as an alternative form of providing support for victims and survivors of apartheid violence and is now seen as way to contribute to the healing journey of individuals, communities and nations.

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September 15, 2007

They Are All Our Children
by Eileen Fleming

"I'm not going to lose my common sense, my direction, only because I've lost my heart, my child. I will do all I can to protect her friends, both Palestinian and Israeli. They are all our children."

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