Press Releases
Dioceses of Derry and Raphoe peacebuilding initiative
Bishop Ken Good says:
?What our community in Northern Ireland needs is hope. This is the hope that there is a real alternative to the division and sectarianism that is manifesting itself in our province at present. It is the hope that there can be a different future."
To suffer a trauma is to experience a powerful shock that may have long lasting effects. It can also be a bodily injury or wound. This describes what Northern Ireland has experienced during the years of the Troubles. Behind the politics and disagreement is the reality that as a community we have suffered a very significant trauma. For some people this experience has been all too personal, and the wounds are deep. For all of us, we live in a society that is still deeply wounded. Recent events continue to illustrate this.
We see disturbing manifestations of sectarianism on a daily basis. There is great misery caused for ordinary people on all sides. Divisions are increasingly serious and there seems to be a disturbing willingness for our community to become more ghettoised. What is needed desperately in Northern Ireland is hope.
Words of condemnation are appropriate in such circumstances. However, the process of building a more peaceful society is also a deeper more long term process.
The Church of Ireland dioceses of Derry and Raphoe aims to make a contribution to this process by holding a special diocesan conference entitled ?Blessed are the Peacemakers? on Saturday 17th September. This event will be held in The Great Hall (The University of Ulster - Magee campus) and is being held in association with INCORE. The conference is being attended by three representatives from each parish in Derry and Raphoe dioceses.
The keynote speaker at this diocesan conference is Mr Antoine Rutayisire. He is the Vice-Chairperson of the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission in Rwanda.
Rwanda is a country that has experienced so much as result of communal division. In 1994 up to one million people out of a population of eight million were murdered in ethnic violence. It faces the huge challenge of recovering from horror on an unimaginable scale. Antoine Rutayisire?s responsibilities have included shaping policy for reconciliation in Rwanda. He has deep personal experience, his father having been murdered in ethnic violence in 1963. A committed Christian, he is also head of African Enterprise (Rwanda). This is a mission organisation founded by a South African Anglican, Rev Michael Cassidy.
Bishop Ken Good says:
?This conference will explore some of the challenges that face us as we seek to build peace in our community. No-one underestimates the challenge. What we are looking for is practical advice, but also inspiration, from another community that has suffered from communal division.?
This process of Peacebuilding is one that the Church of Ireland has decided to make a vigorous contribution to with The Hard Gospel initiative. The Hard Gospel is an initiative of the Church of Ireland that challenges it to make a new contribution to healing divisions in our society. It is a challenge to make a faith-based contribution to building an open and inclusive society.
In this event the dioceses of Derry and Raphoe are making a contribution to the Hard Gospel initiative. Bishop Ken Good says:
?The diocese of Derry and Raphoe is responding to the challenge of The Hard Gospel. This Church of Ireland initiative calls us to reflect on what it means to live a life of faith in a community that has suffered from trauma and division. We know that responding to such a challenge is not always simple or easy. We want to learn from the Peacebuilding experience of Rwanda, and to offer something vital for our community ? hope.?
For further event details please contact:
Revd Earl Storey (Event Co-ordinator)
Mobile: +44 (0)7752841802
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Biography of Antoine Rutayisire, Keynote Speaker at Conference
At the age of 5 Antoine saw his father murdered for being a Tutsi and later his own life was also threatened because of racism.
Antoine holds a MA in Applied Linguistics (UK, North Wales, 1985-86), and an MA in Modern Literature and Curriculum Development from the Rwanda University.
He has lectured at the Rwanda National University, was a teacher and Deputy Headmaster at a Kigali secondary school from 1983 to 1990, and from 1990 to 1994 was Rwanda National Secretary for IFES, a student ministry. Since 1999, he has served as a Commissioner on the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission, in charge of drafting and supervising the implementation of the national policy for reconciliation in Rwanda, and was twice chosen as its Vice-Chairman (2002-2005, 2005-2008).
Vice Chair of the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission
Antoine is Vice Chair of the National Unity and Reconciliation Commission. The National Unity and Reconciliation Commission is charged with using all possible means to assist in the sensitisation of Rwandans about unity and reconciliation and how to enhance it.
All the programmes of the commission are based on the ideas and wishes of the people. That is why the commission holds consultative meetings, every time, with citizens of all categories, be they from inside the country or from abroad. All ideas and wishes from the first meetings the commission held, throughout the country and abroad between June 1999 and February 2000 are the ones that formed the basis of its three main programmes:
? Civic Education ;
? Conflict Mediation ;
? Community Initiatives.
Team Leader of African Enterprise
Antoine became Team Leader of African Enterprise in Rwanda after the horrific Tutsi Genocide of 1994, taking over that same year from Israel Havugimana who died in the killings that left the country in tatters. It is to Antoine?s credit that he was able to revive that was left of the traumatised team and board.
In 1984, he felt deeply challenged by Christ's call to "love your enemies." He was convicted to give up his "right to hate" and one by one forgave each of his enemies. Then he asked God for the power to bless his enemies.
From 1992 to 1994 Antoine was Secretary of the African Enterprise - Rwanda Board before being appointed Team Leader. Antoine is married to Peninah and they have 4 children (2 girls and 2 boys) and have adopted 4 more children, orphans of the genocide.
Antoine and the African Enterprise team are committed to bringing healing, reconciliation, strength and renewal back to the disillusioned and devastated Rwandan church and nation.