Bishop Tutu and the ‘F Word’

I learned about a great organization today from this Huffington Post article, Desmond Tutu Meets Victims and Perpetrators of Violence.   The article focuses on  the inaugural annual lecture of The Forgiveness Project which took place on May 12th, 2010.  In it, the founder of The Forgiveness Project, Marina Cantacuzino, describes Desmond Tutu’s talk:

As he spoke of the uniquely African concept of ‘ubuntu’, the process of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the transformative nature of forgiveness, there was a real sense that people were witnessing something immensely special. It was intriguing to see how he responded to the other speakers on the stage — Mary Blewitt who had lost 50 members of her family in the Rwandan genocide; Jo Berry whose father was killed in the 1984 Brighton bombing; and Patrick Magee, the former IRA activist who planted the bomb. Desmond Tutu indicated he felt honored to be in the presence of these three remarkable people.

Intrigued by an organization that would assemble such a great lecture, I spent some time on The Forgiveness Project’s website and learned that they are doing some incredible work.  The Forgiveness Project is a UK-based organization that focuses on forgiveness, reconciliation and conflict resolution through story telling and real-life human experience.

One of the most fascinating projects that The Forgiveness Project has done and continues to do is a traveling photo and story exhibition called The F Word:  Images of Forgiveness.  The exhibition is a collection of arresting images and personal narratives that draw together voices from South Africa, America, Israel, Palestine, Northern Ireland, and England and “examines forgiveness as a healing process, a journey out of victimhood, and, ultimately, a journey of hope.”

I encourage you to take a look yourself.   Below are two videos that the organization has produced.  The first is a video introduction to the F-Word exhibition and the second is a short video illustrating the concepts of forgiveness (featuring Archbishop Desmond Tutu).

The F-Word: The Forgiveness Project

The Forgiveness Video