Human rights award for Fr Michael Lapsley

After giving the annual Diakonia Lecture, which he titled: “Reconciliation – a Right or a Responsibility?” at the Diakonia Council of Churches Centre, Fr Lapsley was presented with the Diakonia award by Bishop Barry Wood.

Included in the audience was a group of Zimbabwean activists and asylum seekers who had been invited to hear his message of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Originally from New Zealand, Fr Lapsley has become an international advocate for reconciliation, forgiveness and restorative justice.   

He has held “Healing of Memories” workshops for groups involved with these complex issues in Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Ireland, the USA, Australia and Britain.

Fr Lapsley began his South African journey in 1973 in Durban and was soon involved in activism for the ANC.

In 1976 he was banned and while in Harare, was the victim of a letter bomb sent by a CCB operative in South Africa.

Despite losing both hands and one eye, as well as suffering extensive burns, he rebuilt his life resolutely and, in the post apartheid era, worked for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Turning the pages of his prepared address deftly with the substitute hands that contributed to his own healing process, Fr Lapsley spoke to the theme: “Who is My Neighbour?”   

He reminded his audience that “my neighbour is everyone” and said that the recent, “shameful” xenophobic attacks had brought out the best and the worst in people.

“There were many acts of kindness, from the very poor to the middle class who provided food and shelter.  But many people fail to help South Africans in equally difficult conditions,” he said.  

Quoting Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8: “To everything there is a season…”, Fr Lapsley said that some of the voices in the current political discourse belonged to a previous age and that they were out of sync.

“It is not a time of war, but a time of peace,” he said.  “It is not a time to keep silent, but a time to speak.”

“We should be fearless in supporting the government when it acts in the interests of all and the converse applies:  we should be equally fearless when the government fails to act…”, he stressed.

As examples, he cited the South African government’s recent attacks on the judiciary and the shipment of weapons for Zimbabwe that arrived in Durban harbour and which the South African government had authorised be sent to Zimbabwe overland.

“We can be proud of the prophetic role of Bishop Rubin Phillip and others who stopped the arms ship (from offloading its cargo),” he said.

Fr Lapsley concluded by saying that people needed to cooperate with God and His healing work as it was integral to the Christian message.”

“We need to add “healing” and “reconstruction” to the Millennium Goals,” he said.

           

            To everything there is a season,

            a time for every purpose under the sun.

            A time to be born and a time to die;

            a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

            a time to kill and a time to heal …

            a time to weep and a time to laugh;

            a time to mourn and a time to dance …

            a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;

            a time to lose and a time to seek;

            a time to rend and a time to sew;

            a time to keep silent and a time to speak;

            a time to love and a time to hate;

            a time for war and a time for peace.

            Ecclesiastes 3:1-8