For nearly four years I have been writing to you in each issue of the newsletter and the former Quarterly with an introduction to its contents and reflections on Church and Peace-related issues. Now unfortunately I must write to say goodbye as I will be leaving Church and Peace at the end of August and starting a new position as pastor for ecumenics and adult education in the Koblenz church district of the Rhineland Protestant Church.

The past four years with Church and Peace has been a very busy time, and I have tried to make it possible for you to participate as well in the various Church and Peace activities and involvements. Highlights during this time were Church and Peace’s participation in the Second European Ecumenical Assembly in Graz, Austria, in 1997 and the Church and Peace 50th anniversary symposium last May at the Bienenberg. At the same time we were confronted with the Gulf War in 1998 and wars in Kosovo and Serbia and the Caucasus last year and this year. We also reported about the World Council of Churches’ Program to Overcome Violence which resulted in plans for the upcoming Decade to Overcome Violence (2001-2010). This program drew our attention to situations such as those in Northern Ireland and South Africa.

I am very thankful for my time with Church and Peace. I have been able to learn much, particularly from the witness of the Historic Peace Churches and the closely related communities and peace service agencies who are linked in the Church and Peace network. The aim of nonviolent peace witness and the related concern for working for a changed form of living as church will remain an important component of my work with my the Rhineland Protestant Church.

I have continually been impressed by the numerous courageous and hopeful initiatives and forms of community to be found in the Church and Peace network and by the fact that many people are involved in work for peace, reconciliation and nonviolent solutions to conflict, working sometimes nearly to the point of exhaustion. Further I have been impressed by the spiritual and ecumenical wealth Church and Peace has to offer.

The question of my successor is currently under discussion. A key factor is the fact that Church and Peace continues to suffer from insufficient financial resources and the subsequent need to maintain a reduced staff, which in turn limits the scope of Church and Peace work. Thus we are still very dependent on your support.

I want to express my thankfulness for all your support, encouragement and prayers over the past four years. I hope to remain in touch with the Church and Peace network and wish Church and Peace God’s blessing and all the best for the future.

I would like to close with a thought from Bishop Jacques Gaillot, soldier in Algeria at the end of the 1950s:

“This nearly daily encounter with violence was very bewildering for me. The violence made the people afraid and widened the chasm between the Algerian and French groups. It became clear to me that violence does not sort out conflicts and that the sound of weapons does not bring the peace that is wished for. I looked for alternatives. The need for nonviolence became more and more apparent to me even before I was familiar with the term “nonviolence”. After my return to France I discovered, with burning interest, the writings of Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. I regret that I was not led sooner to the power of nonviolence which, for me, should be a sign for our times.” (Eine Kirche, die nicht dient, dient zu nichts, pp 27)

As a small network of European Christians, Church and Peace faces a continual struggle to make ends meet and to find the time for the work it deems necessary. But the recent Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Ingolstadt, Germany, on April 7-9 showed that the members see no reason to despair. They have a commitment, a conviction they want to share. The AGM was an opportunity for reflection about what the network wants to accomplish together, what the members’ expectations are and how to achieve this with the resources available.

The wide range of Church and Peace involvement was evident from the regional reports at the AGM, and conversations with AGM participants confirmed this. One community is active in public action against nuclear testing, another promotes environmental peace through an organic farming business. One group is involved in campaigns against land mines and handguns, another organizes mediation training sessions. Some communities consider their life in community as their primary witness for peace. In France other churches have adopted the Mennonite idea of a Sunday for Peace. Serbian army deserters are given assistance in Eastern Europe. Dialogues are organized with KFOR-soldiers. The BOCS Foundation translates materials into Hungarian, Serbian and Russian about the Christian basis for peacemaking and uses the Internet to distribute such resources. Mennonite Central Committee works in the Balkans together with organizations such as Bread of Life.

Working at effective communication and establishing and strengthening contacts form a core goal in each of the regions. Gyula Simonyi affirmed the possibilities the Internet offers for spreading the message of service for peace and nonviolence. Members of the Committee for Britain and Ireland utilize email to maintain the network of peace organizations in their areas and distribute information to the media. Volunteers maintain the records and coordinate communication. “We think we are well organized,” said Gerald Drewett, a Quaker from Hertford. Sylvie Gudin Poupaert, parttime staff worker at the Church & Peace office in Strasbourg, devotes much of her time to establishing contacts - the success of which can be seen in the expansion of the network in the Francophone region.

Disappointing was the absence of Dutch members at the meeting. Marie-Noëlle von der Recke, Church & Peace chairperson, commented that one reason for deciding to hold the next Church & Peace international conference (in 2001) in the Netherlands was to draw Christian Dutch pacifists to the international peace network.

Is Church and Peace really necessary for local peace work? This “identity question” came up repeatedly during the AGM, first with the report of the Administrative Committee, next during financial discussions and primarily when the international office in Schoeffengrund, Germany, presented its report. International office staff members Christian Hohmann (General Secretary) and Terri Miller cannot satisfactorily deal with all the work that comes their way.

Church & Peace’s work is supported by contributions from the members and friends in the network and by a few reliable grant sources. Unfortunately the network has had to deal with a fundamental problem of some members not paying their membership fees. The comment that Church and Peace could not have continued to exist without the legacy the network received in 1998 met with resistance from network co-founder Wilfried Warneck. “A good cause would continue without money,” he stated.

In an impassioned speech, Bruno Bauchet of the French community Pain de Vie encouraged those present to avoid worrying too much about the future of Church and Peace. “I know why I am here,” he said. “This is the only place that brings together people who have a theological basis for their pacifism. I know of no other organization like this...Enjoy being together. Places that last are those where there is poverty...We don’t have to jump on the bandwagon of the strong organizations...We are dependent on each other, on God. Perhaps poverty is a grace. It gives us the chance to see whether we can manage without.”

For me, this plea reflected the spirit of the meeting. The participants enjoyed being together. An openness characterized the discussions. The participants witnessed to their bond with God by singing and praying together. The hospitality of the host Mennonite congregation was excellent.

Lydia Penner, English version of an article in the Algemeen Doopsgezind Weekblad, April 15, 2000

Adapted: TRM

The ratification of four membership applications and the election of a new Administrative Committee were two high points of the Church and Peace Annual General Meeting held at the Mennonite church in Ingolstadt, Germany, on April 7 and 8.

The Annual General Meeting approved applications for membership from the Hofgemeinschaft Bittelbronn, the Association Le Soc, Pastor Janna Postma and Pastor Senyeebea Yawo Kakpo.

• The Hofgemeinschaft Bittelbronn, an intentional community rooted in the Lutheran Church in Wuerttemberg, was founded two years ago and runs an organic farming business. Its peace witness focuses on personal relationships and justice, peace and integrity of creation concerns. Community members Heidi and Martin Haussecker and Thomas and Susanne Müller-Stöcker are interested in continuing their present involvement in the C&P network and see one of their main tasks as familiarizing the local church with C&P. The community is open for visitors.

• Mr. Senyeebea Yawo Kakpo is a Presbyterian pastor from Togo, presently studying law in France. Pastor Kakpo is a member of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in France and is active in the local chapter in Lyons, where he resides. He has experience with conflict resolution and peace work in his parishes in Togo. He greatly values C&P’s large network of European ecumenical contacts and its emphasis on theological reflection, specifically peace theology.

• The Association “Le Soc” (Plowshare) is an ecumenical association founded in 1990 within the conciliar process for justice, peace and the integrity of creation with the specific vocation of promoting interreligious dialogue. Le Soc’s point of reference is Gospel-based nonviolence, particularly as modeled and taught by Jean Goss. Le Soc works within the Church by holding meetings and training sessions on the philosophy and methods of active nonviolence and leading related activities. The association also has a hospitality ministry for persons facing difficulties or searching for direction in their lives. Le Soc’s guesthouse is available for use by small groups. Le Soc directors Betty and Claude Braun are individual members of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in France.

• Ms. Janna Postma is a pastor in the Dutch Mennonite Church. She is very involved in peace and justice issues and is active in the Dutch Mennonite Peace Group (DVG). She spoke in the Peace House co-organized by C&P at the European Ecumenical Assembly in Graz in 1997 about her experience growing up in a family with members in the Nazi party.

The Annual General Meeting also approved the slate of candidates proposed by the Nominations Committee for Administrative Committee membership. Former Committee members Marie-Noëlle von der Recke, Mennonite, member of the Laurentiuskonvent in Laufdorf, Germany, and C&P chairperson; Gerald Drewett, Quaker from Hertford, United Kingdom, and contact person for C&P Britain & Ireland; and Gyula Simonyi, Hungarian Catholic, member of the Bokor Movement and coordinator of the C&P Eastern European region, were elected for a further three year term. New Committee members include:

• Sister Irmtraud, member of the Grandchamp community in Switzerland and active in C&P since its formation;

• Bruno Bauchet, French Catholic and member of the community Pain de Vie;

• Cor Keijzer, pastor in the Dutch Reformed Church;

• Tony Kempster, secretary of the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship Secretary;

• Gudrun Tappe-Freitag, German Baptist, graduate of Oekumenischer Dienst’s shalom services training course and member of Initiative Schalom;

• Klaus Tschentscher, member of the Laurentiuskonvent in Wethen, Germany.

The AGM elected Marie-Noëlle von der Recke as chairperson, Gerald Drewett as vice-chairperson and Klaus Tschentscher as treasurer.

In other business the AGM approved the financial report for 1999 and the budget for 2000; ratified several amendments to the C&P constitution, a membership criteria document and an official application for membership; and voted to continue the theological work of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Kirchliches Friedenszeugnis (Working Group for Church Peace Witness ) in a Church and Peace theology working group. AGM participants also began planning for the C&P international conference to be held April 27 to 29, 2001, in Elspeet, Netherlands. The international conference is to focus on an exchange of experiences and fellowship with network contacts from the Balkan region. A seminar for the guests from the Balkans and the AGM 2001 will directly precede the conference.

****

Meditation on Hebrews 5:7-9 for the closing worship service on 9 April 2000 of the Church & Peace Annual General Meeting with host congregation Ingolstadt Mennonite Church

Herbert Froehlich

The selected scripture is common to both the Catholic and Protestant Churches for this Sunday “Judica”.

The Church and Peace network is here as a guest in Ingolstadt. The church “Maria de Victoria”, a masterpiece of Baroque architecture and painting, is located here. But this work is an artistic contribution to a military victory, the navy battle at Lepanto which warded off the invasion of the Christian continent by a Muslim power.

A settlement called “of the Lord” is located here, a settlement which reminds one of the people who were nomads because of their understanding of the Christian faith - they were not willing to use the sword to witness about their beliefs - and were forced again and again to move to a different place, to leave their homes, to settle in new, and usually inhospitable, places, such as the marshy meadows here close to Ingolstadt. They were called the “meadow inhabitants”.

Ingolstadt today: automobile city. For me, the city of some trucks which were loaded with goods collected here to be brought to southeastern Europe to a crisis region, to Croatia, to Bosnia.

For these helpers, the path to the place of assistance became a path through traces of evil. The war of the 1990s becomes apparent along the way in innumerable ruins, in damaged churches, cemeteries, hospitals; evidence that war does only mean victory but also destruction, obliteration of the “other”, in the present, in the past and also for the future. The current war makes allusion to an earlier war: the war of the 1940s of which the traces lead back to Germany, the helpers’ home country.

The truck drivers see and experience that a learning of evil is taking place among the people. The willingness to destroy and the science of destruction is increasing. More and more rulers are pulled into the evil’s wake. A horrible learning process - without a foreseeable end.

There is another path of learning. And this path is traveled in the face of evil. We hear about this path in the letter to the Hebrews. In the center stands a man who is called not by his name, Jesus, but alone by his title, Christ, the anointed one.

In the days of his earthly life the Christ traveled throughout the land, praying, crying, shouting. He suffers in his time, and he suffers because of the times. He sees the ruins of houses, he sees the ruins of souls. Thus he comes before God.

He is reverent, in awe of God, and he learns obedience through suffering. I have a picture in mind of what this means: he goes his way in reverence, in submission.

At the center of this picture is a man who comes from God.

He allows God to support him. He hears the message: I am here, I am he who is here for you.

He feels God’s supporting hands behind him. Supporting his back. Resting on his shoulders.

He allows God alone to support him.

As such he is free. An attitude of submission comes into the foreground: his eyes are open for others.

Who does he meet on his path? Strangers, others, faces. God’s creation in all its diversity. People who, as the Quakers teach us, carry in them, each person, a light of God.

His regard is open, searching, acknowledging.

With his gaze he lifts up the lowly: You are also God’s creation, called by name.

With his gaze he confronts the indifferent: You too are called to be. Wake up, be present, be aware of where you come from and where you are going.

With his gaze he irritates the powerful: You are a human being, not a god.

His suffering is powerlessness, which conceals the glory of God in his creation; his suffering is a blockade of the powerful against God’s blessing.

His attitude remains one of reverence and submission.

He lets himself be touched, he touches others and heals.

Those who do not let themselves be touched strike back.

He stays his course. He learns and teaches - reverence and respect for others.

Carried, strengthened alone by his reverence for God.

He continues on his way and he falls. He falls through the blows of those he annoys. He falls back into the hand of God. There is no other path; perfection comes through defeat. He learned obedience and experienced fulfillment.

The path of submission continues. Those who are called to follow this path learn the secret of the Christ. They travel to the place of assistance. They see customs officers, soldiers, refugees, hate-filled persons, traumatized persons. They recognize others in these places of crisis who are carried by an attitude of submission. Messengers of peace in the middle of war. Persons who refuse to learn that the other is a demon.

Supported by God, regarding with an attitude of reverence those with whom they come into contact. People come and they wish to live. Now, in today’s world, they do not want to be abandoned by God. Happy are those who, on their life’s journey, learn from God reverence for all people.

-The Caulmont Community celebrates its 20th anniversary

1970: The French Reformed Church approves an experimental project focusing on offering Christian-based hospitality and leisure activities run by a small community-minded team. The Communauté de Caulmont, dedicated to being a place of hospitality and welcome, takes its first steps.

1974: The Communion de Caulmont is created, uniting the first Protestant and Catholic “team members”. The Communion is made up of an ecumenical group of persons living in different locations who support and give life to the Caulmont vision.

1976: A new phase begins with the purchase of property in Normandy. Volunteers and paid workers labor over the next few years to transform the property for its new function.

In the 1980s the composition of the group living in community changes regularly. The group ranges from 4 to 7 adults and 5 to 11 children. Catholic and Protestant, the group’s members choose to live for several years at the community house, giving substance to the calling of hospitality and prayer. Over time the group - comprised of singles, couples and families, younger and older persons - adopts different styles of living. The community lives a process of searching, building and leaving with hospitality and prayer as central points of reference.

1984: Following discussion with the Catholic church and regional bishop, Caulmont opens its doors to a small community of elderly Benedictine nuns. The “Benedictine Sisters” era begins with up to 22 residents between the ages of 2 and 85. During this time hosting of other guests is greatly reduced.

With the departure of several residents and the deaths of the Sisters, the Community is forced to decrease its activities, though the guesthouse’s capacity increases significantly. Through the impetus given by the directors, the hospitality ministry develops and diversifies.

Year 2000 and beyond: The directors, the resident staff and members of the Communion (presently comprised of about 100 families) are looking with joy toward the future and count on the support of many to continue with the ministry of hospitality.

From Nouvelles de Caulmont, Spring 2000

Trad: TRM

- Instilling confidence and training mediators

The year 2000, declared an “International Year for a Culture of Peace” by the United Nations, will no doubt be a significant year in the history of the pacifist movement for both laity and religious. This year will be a springboard for promoting peace during the entire UN Decade for Peace. Among other activities MIR romand (Francophone Swiss Fellowship of Reconciliation) will devote its energies to work with children and adolescents, first because the UN Decade has as a priority to reach youth, and secondly because there is a great need for such work in schools and parishes.

Since February 1999 MIR romand has been involved in the area of communication and conflict resolution training for adolescents and adults. This work started with two introductory training sessions in the province of Fribourg. Through these sessions 40 school classes were introduced to the principles and practice of nonviolent communication methods and conflict resolution. This program was started in these institutions in order to prevent the escalation of violence. Teachers participated actively in the sessions along with their students so that both groups could put the principles in practice that they had learned together.

Parallel to this work MIR romand assisted the Parent Association of Glane in getting a violence prevention program started. This program brought together a dozen parents for a series of 4 meetings from November 1999 to February 2000.

(...) Violence prevention work is complex and sometimes unrewarding. Complex because each intervention must be adapted to a particular context and must examine the request for assistance with both the forces for and resistant to change in mind. Sometimes unrewarding because time is needed to evaluate the effect of these interventions; immediate benefits may be only partially evident. This increases the skepticism of those who wish to accept violence as a given and for whom repression is still the best method of responding. Still, feedback from parents, adolescents and teachers encourages us to continue this work. Of course prevention programs must take into consideration the degree of violence because there will be no peace without justice!

In the year 2000 MIR romand will continue its violence prevention work for both adults and adolescents in the provinces of Fribourg and Neuchâtel. We also meet occasionally with catechumen who attend schools where we are working. This seems to be an opportunity to make additional contacts in the educational system which we feel we must have an effect upon at all levels.

Bulletin romand de la réconciliation, March 2000

Trad: TRM

Gudrun Tappe-Freitag

Sierra Leona is located on the west coast of Africa. It has fought a merciless war since 1991 for control of the diamond mines. The war, like every other war, has claimed many lives. But this war has been even worse. Through the use of drugs, soldiers, including some 4000 children as young as ten years old, have been made into violent criminals. They attacked their own villages, destroyed them and chopped off the legs and arms of the villagers. For me, all this was simply knowledge acquired from books and newspapers...

My colleague Ute Caspers and I visited the country at the invitation of the Sierra Leone Council of Churches. Through this visit I have come to know other facets of the situation. Our main question as we visited churches and NGOs was: “What is being done in the area of peace education, reconciliation and dealing with trauma?”. And we learned that not only is there a state-run program to reintegrate the rebels but that there is also a deeply-rooted feeling among the population that the rebels are a part of the people; they are called “separated brothers”. I met men and women who walked 20 miles in order to prepare themselves in a workshop for a meeting with the separated brothers. We learned that the people feel there are totally different causes for the war than those that are officially named as causes. There is deep knowledge of and feeling for injustice. It is a dissatisfaction with the hierarchy and the administration of justice. The chief does not settle a conflict satisfactorily for all parties. Women are always handled unjustly but have to keep silent and carry the burden. One woman recalled a public meeting her grandfather had led where all persons had the right to speak. Back to the roots! We often heard this wish, in the churches as well. It is very clear that the religious tradition there is European, in both external and internal matters. “We plowed and we sowed”, we sang in a worship service and even sang the stanza about snow. Too bad, I was looking forward to African culture.

It was exactly this European body of thought that made our task so difficult. We, the Europeans, were to find out whether we could hold peace education workshops using our methods and style of working. We realized that people were ready to address questions of peace and reconciliation. They also found our methods and working style helpful, but more importantly they accepted us. They greatly valued the fact that we put ourselves in danger on their behalf, so that they would not be alone in their time of need.

Officially the war is over but the difficulties are immense in this country. Despite the willingness of some to work for peace and reconciliation, reality will demand much from the people. They need support.

1 May 2000

Trans: TRM

Mel Duncan and David Hartsough

Mission

Our mission is to mobilize and train a multicultural, nonviolent, standing peace force. The Peace Force will deploy to conflict areas to help create the space for local groups to struggle, dialogue and seek peaceful resolution while protecting human rights and preventing death and destruction.

Goal

During the next two years a multinational planning team will develop, organize, recruit and train a global peace force. By 2002 we will have organized:

• At least 200 skilled peacemakers willing to commit to participate in training and deployment for at least 2 years.

• At least 400 people with training and specific peace making skills who would be available on a reserve basis for at least one month per year.

• At least 500 supporting members around the globe willing to contact their media, government officials and religious leaders about the Peaceforce’s work.

• At least 6 leaders with international esteem who are willing to lead the Global Peace Force into conflict areas and remain for at least short periods of time.

• An international, efficient and accountable decision making body.

The Global Peace Force will grow to a level of 2,000 active members by the end of the decade.

Background

The application of third party nonviolent intervention in conflict areas has increased dramatically during the last twenty years. Groups including Peace Brigades International, Witness for Peace, SIPAZ and Christian Peacemaker Teams have provided small international peace teams to provide unarmed body guards and carry out nonviolent peacemaking in a variety of conflict areas in the world. These actions have saved a significant number of lives especially of human rights workers and helped to create spaces for the reestablishment of peace and civil society.

The call for effective peacemaking is gaining popular momentum as people throughout the world have witnessed the recent brutality and futility of armed conflicts in places like Kosovo, East Timor and Rwanda. The world needs dynamic institutions that encourage people to engage in effective and strategic nonviolent activities designed to bring about peaceful resolutions to conflicts. The United Nations recognized this need by designating the next decade to a culture of peace and nonviolence for the worlds children.

Last May at the Hague Appeal for Peace activists from around the world gathered to explore how to bring third party nonviolent intervention to a dramatic new level based upon lessons learned from the experiences of the past quarter century. The proposal flows from this historical legacy and those meetings at the Hague.

Strategies

A clear mandate with a specific strategy and precise objectives will be tailored to each conflict area. Services could include: supporting local peacemaking efforts, accompaniment, training, unarmed border patrolling, interpositioning between conflicting parties, instantaneous video witnessing and creating safe zones. While in the conflict area the Global Peace Force will serve as international eyes, ears and voice, alerting the world to conditions of the conflict.

Funding

Three hundred thousand dollars US are required for each of the two years of planning and development. Eight million dollars will be necessary for the first year of operation. When the Global Peace Force is at full strength of 2,000 active participants and a full complement of supporters by the end of the decade, an annual operating budget of $80 million will be required (the same amount the world spends on the military every hour). Funding sources will include individuals, foundations and governmental organizations.

Progress

Since meeting in the Hague in May of 1999, 150 face to face consultations have taken place with over 1,000 peacemakers, government officials, scholars, religious leaders and military personnel in 9 countries. An additional 1,000 other consultations have taken place throughout the world via the Internet. The proposal has been endorsed by key individuals and organizations including the Dalai Lama and the United Nations Volunteers Humanitarian Relief Unit and 140 advisors from around the world have been enlisted.

Conclusion

We have the capacity to make the Global Peace Force happen in our lifetimes. The ingredients abound: there are many veterans of nonviolent movements; strategic lessons have been learned; our organizational abilities have increased; highly qualified trainers are available; the World Wide Web, already used to advance the campaigns for banning land mines and establishing an international Criminal Court, is available as an organizing tool; funders are expressing an interest; and, most importantly, people are demanding an alternative to highly militarized interventions. There will be no better way to commemorate the United Nations Decade of Peace and nonviolence than to do so.

from the Executive Summary, April 12, 2000

This proposal is an evolving work that will improve with your thoughts, reflections and experience. We invite you to join us in co-creating the Global Peace Force.

Full proposal available at http://www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org/

Mel Duncan, Peaceworkers, 801 Front Ave., St. Paul, MN.55103, USA, Tel: +1 651 917 8717, Email: [email protected] or David Hartsough, Peaceworkers, 721 Shrader St., San Francisco, CA. 94117, USA, Tel: +1 415 751 0302, Email: [email protected]

Anne Wuerges

An international youth forum, the sixth of its kind, took place this year in Krakow, Poland. My school decided to take part this year as well and sent a ninth grade class to the meeting. The main goal of the forum was to bring European youth closer together and break down prejudices and “we/them” attitudes and to thus move a step closer to a community-minded, unified Europe in which individual people count, not status or origin.

The program was full of variety: workshops, excursions, discussion sessions as well as evening programs and a good amount of free time. With approximately 150 youth from nine different countries - Belgium, Austria, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Ukraine, Germany and Poland - the forum was well attended.

Workshops

Already before leaving for Poland each participant had to choose one workshop from the five offered. The goal of the workshops was to put together a contribution in the space of one week for the final presentation on the last day of the forum. Unfortunately some of the workshop groups ended up being comprised of youth from the same country and because of this the very element that was to have made the workshops something special - to create something with “foreign” people and in this way to initiate discussion - was not present.

Discussion sessions

In the discussion sessions participants got together to examine various current issues. Main topics were “Our earth” (ecology questions, energy conservation); “People” (death penalty, parenting methods); “Wars” (preventing wars, causes of war) and “Love” (same sex relationships, rights of same sex couples). Statements from Polish students concerning the various topics were first read and then discussed with all the participants. It was great that each person could give his or her opinion without being mocked or yelled at - even with the difficult topic the death penalty which drew an extremely diverse audience - and then to search for solutions together.

Excursions

In addition to the usual city tours, a visit to the Ausschwitz concentration camp was planned. Although we were largely familiar with the historical facts, we were shocked by the size of the camp which we had only seen previously on television or heard about. It was not possible to suppress the knowledge of what had taken place there when one was standing in the middle of the former camp. For me, though, the behavior of other visitors was almost worse than seeing the actual camp. We couldn’t comprehend that some people could break into laughter while standing by the “Death Wall” or could deny what the camp had been used for.

Our relationship as German youth to Ausschwitz is very difficult since we are not directly responsible for what happened there. However we can not make the mistake of denying or covering up our country’s past. We have to know that we will be asked about this past whenever we go to another country and must be able to formulate a personal opinion about what has happened. We agreed that what happened in Ausschwitz can not be allowed to happen again and we see it as our task to prevent such human rights violations from taking place again.

International meetings

Europe has become smaller. We have contact with youth from many different European countries through exchange programs and youth fora. We hope that Europe continues to grow closer together and that prejudices about people from other countries continue to disappear. I think many meetings such as this one will take place in the future and am happy that I had the chance to take part in such a gathering. I have also learned about international cooperation during my two-week time of practical training for my school at the Church and Peace international office. I think this is an important step along the way to building a world in which people are concerned about more than just themselves or their own country.

Trans: TRM

*****

Beyond Impunity: an Ecumenical Approach to Truth, Justice and Reconciliation, by Geneviève Jacques (WCC Publications, 61 pp, CHF 9.90). Jacques, a WCC staff member, reflects on the experience of people in many parts of the world in relation to violations of human rights and human dignity. This book challenges the churches to reach across traditional boundaries and join others in the search for new paths towards genuine justice, repentance and reconciliation and thus to provide hope.