On the Reconciliation Panel

Hope for a future without violence and fear resonated throughout the panel discussion on The Church and Global Reconciliation on March 7th at St. James'. Both Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Bishop Gordon McMullan go back thirty years or more with Bishop Rockwell and therefore with St. James’. While Archbishop Tutu and Bishop McMullan were actively engaged to stop the horrors within their countries and move to peace and reconciliation, Bishop Rockwell directed the attention of St. James’ and the Episcopal Church towards their courageous struggle.

Archbishop Tutu and Bishop McMullan described first hand the violence and fear that had had a strangle hold on their countries. In South Africa, it was based on the color of the skin (apartheid), in Northern Ireland, on religion -– Catholic vs. Protestant -- and politics. Many thousands died in South Africa, more than 3,500 in Northern Ireland.

What kept their sanity during this tragic time? Archbishop Tutu said it was his Christian faith and the knowledge that all over the world people were praying for him and for South Africa. Bishop McMullan’s Christianity is who he is. As people with major differences come together and talk, they discover that they have more in common than differences. It is this commonality that brings joy.

Tentatively, both men expect that there will be no turning back in their countries, as too many of their citizens experienced violence and now crave peace.

Bishop Rockwell said we take one step first and then another. A prophetic gift is accompanied by patience as well as humility. Forgiveness moves us toward a right relationship with God and our neighbors. But God does not make the world perfect, we must.

--Katharine Fleming, Mission Committee