If we are brave enough to follow the news from around the world, we cannot but be painfully aware of the chaos around us. A large number of countries are involved in armed combat, governments are failing, corruption is rife and protests are a daily occurrence.
In all of this: as Johanna Macy asks, “How do we face the mess we are in without going crazy?”
On Saturday 26th January, the various religious congregations around Johannesburg were invited by the Dominican congregations to spend some time reflecting on Johanna Macy’s question in our South African context.
Sr. Ann Wigley, the Congregational Leader of the King Williams Town Dominicans, explored some of the options before us as we face the reality of our times: times of uncertainty where things seem to be spinning out of control and people retreat in self-protection and lash out in fear.
Referring to Margaret Wheatley’s theory of Building Islands of Sanity, Ann encouraged us to connect with the power of things as they are: the beautiful, the vibrant and the chaotic. She also asked: “Are you living in service of compassion and justice?”
With contemplation and community it is possible to create small islands of peace in impossibly wild seas – in the place where we live, in the place where we minister, in ourselves.
The second speaker was Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge who spoke about peacebuilding and conflict in Africa.
Nozizwe, a former politician who was South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Defence for five years and Deputy Minister of Health for three years, was dismissed from the Cabinet by President Thabo Mbeki on 8th August, 2007 because she challenged his denialism of the reality of HIV and AIDS.
After resigning from her work in the government, she and her husband, Jeremy, started an NGO called Embrace Dignity, that sets out to challenge gendered, power inequalities that continue to oppress women and girls, through prostitution, sexual exploitation, and sexual abuse. She is a champion of counter human trafficking initiatives.
Jeremy & Nozizwe Routledge
Nozizwe and her husband are Quakers and have been leaders in the Pan-African Peacebuilding and Nonviolence Network, so starting with a quote from Dorothy Thompson- “Peace is not the absence of conflict, but a creative response to the conflict” – she is convinced that we have all caused conflict and so we bear the full responsibility of re-establishing harmony.
She gave examples from around the world where nonviolence has overcome conflict; times when individuals have joined others to challenge power non-violently: for example, demonstrations by unarmed women. The apartheid government of South Africa was brought down non-violently.
She left us with these thoughts: The strength of non-violence is that it enforces trust and more conversation. React to violence with compassion.
We left feeling more hopeful than we had in the morning. Together we can build islands of sanity in these chaotic times.
Colleen Wilkinson rsm
South African Province
