A press
release of the World Council of Churches (WCC) on the 27th May 2017
Reconciliation
was once primarily seen as a message of the church but is now used by secular
leaders trying to establish peace in communities torn by conflict and war, WCC
president for Africa, the Rev Dr Mary Anne Plaatjies van Huffel, has said at a
major Protestant gathering in Germany.
“To pursue
punitive justice exclusively will not result in reconciliation,” said South
African theologian Plaatjies van Huffel in a Bible study during the 24-28 May
German Protestant Kirchentag, or “church festival,” in Berlin. “Reconciliation
has also to do with the uncovering of the truth and forgiveness.”
Referring to
South Africa’s post-Apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission, chaired by
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Plaatjies van Huffel said both victims and
perpetrators revisited the divided past together and shared in collective
feelings of hurt and shame.
“The premise
of the truth and reconciliation process was that reconciliation is needed, not
only at an individual level, nor only between individuals, but also within and
between communities and the nation as a whole,” she noted.
“The road to
reconciliation requires more than forgiveness and respectful remembrance.
Forgiveness is not about forgetting, but rather means remembering the past in a
way that makes a different kind of future possible for both victim and the
wrongdoer,” said Plaatjies van Huffel, the first woman to be ordained as a
pastor within the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa.
Organised
every two years in a different German city, the Kirchentag this year has
gathered more than 100,000 participants of all ages in Berlin.
Other Bible
studies were offered by WCC general secretary the Rev Olav Fykse Tveit; Agnes
Abuom, moderator of the WCC Central Committee; and Central Committee members
Bishop Samuel Azariah of the Church of Pakistan, and Audeh Quawas, belonging to
the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and from Amman in Jordan.
“For us at
the World Council of Churches, the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace has become
the key through which the fellowship of churches seeks to make its mission
resonate in the face of the challenges of our time,” said Tveit in his Bible
study.
Referring to
the biblical account of the encounter between Jesus and Zacchaeus, a repentant
tax collector in Jericho (Luke 19:1-10), Tveit noted that Zacchaeus found peace
in joyfully welcoming but he was also ready to make up for the injustice of the
past by rendering justice.
“Our call as
followers of Christ is to proclaim the message of justice in order that our
world will experience true and lasting peace. And this is the core message of
the Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace,” he continued.
The story,
said Tveit, “can open not only minds and hearts, but open the walls that are
erected to divide people of today, walls of suspicion, of hatred, of sin.”
“This story
brings hope to us, wherever we are in our closed minds and closed behaviour.
The story can also bring hope to those who are living in Jericho and near
Jericho today, who are divided by occupation and oppression and violence,” said
the WCC general secretary.
In his bible
study, Quawas noted that Zacchaeus would have been considered by his
townspeople as a collaborator with the Roman occupiers of the time.
Jesus,
however, showed unexpected grace and love towards Zacchaeus, and in so doing
brought the anger of the townspeople upon himself. Grace is unexpected,
“because Zacchaeus didn’t earn it,” said Quawas. “Grace is free, but not cheap.
And its nature is love.”
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