A DIFFERENT WAY

Twenty-one years ago in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, Gordon Wilson's daughter was killed by a terrorist bomb. He said: “I bear no ill will. I bear no grudge. Dirty sort of talk is not going to bring her back to life.” In May this year we heard the mother of Jimmy Mizen, the murdered teenager in London, say: “Anger breeds anger, and bitterness will destroy my family if I'm not careful - and I won't allow that to happen.”

“An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” - in some parts of Europe the idea of vendetta still exists. “If you hurt one of my relatives, I'll hurt one of yours - if you kill my sister, I'll kill yours”. The law is not allowed to take its course and vengeance is fed down through the generations, breeding hatred and fear.

We have watched the effects of this sort of mind set in Northern Ireland in the recent past and can see it going on today in Palestine/Israel - a rocket attack by one side produces a bomb from the other. Bitterness is multiplied. There is never any healing, any progress; no new beginnings. It happens at our own local scale, too, when families bear grudges, neighbours cannot resolve conflict and partners are torn apart. The urge to get your own back has been part of countless stories from Romeo and Juliet to Harry Potter.

Yet in the middle of hatred, there sometimes emerge leaders who say: “there is a different way, let's talk” In South Africa, Mandela talked of forgiving the past; in Northern Ireland, Catholic and Protestant leaders spoke of compromise, of giving way. I suppose one of the things that peacemakers have had in common is a willingness to talk things through, to surrender some cherished territory, and to accept a letting go of the past. Sometimes the peacemakers are simply ordinary people, who cannot bear to see hurt and bitterness repaid.

But how hard we find the letting go. The Christian faith is clear: Jesus said we should forgive “seventy times seven”, but his followers have often been as bad as any one else in putting that into practice! It is painful to release old hurts, to “die” to our past, but in dying to what has hurt us, and in forgiving, there is new life and a real sense of peace. The Wilsons and Mizens have shown us that there is a different way, which gives new life and hope.

Andy Shearn  

CHARIOTS FOR CHARITY

Read all about Matt's event on page 8.

THE THREE GRACES

At the fair with the WI page 5

WHAT KATY DID NEXT

News from Amasango - full report page 7