"Healing the Wounds of Ethnic Conflict: The Role of the Church in Healing, Forgiveness and Reconciliation"
by Dr. Rhiannon Lloyd with Kristine Bresser
This booklet was originally written for workshop participants. It is not a manual on how to run the workshop, but is, instead, a further resource for those who have gone through the workshop or for those who are working in other areas of reconciliation. We are not a publishing company and produce only enough for ourselves. However, over the years we have heard that many people have been able to profitably use this simple material in their specific situations so we try to keep enough available for those who are seeking to work in the area of reconciliation.
The Table of Contents and an excerpt from the first chapter are reproduced below for your information:
Section 1: Laying the Foundation - Understanding and Experiencing God's Heart
- The Roots: Understanding the Problem
- The Church - God's Holy Nation
- God's Answer to a Nation that has Gone Wrong
- Healing, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation
- Suffering and a God of Love
- Knowing God as a Loving Father
Section 2: Building the Walls - Healing our Wounds
- The Thief
- The Wounded Spirit
- Jesus the Pain Bearer
- Workshop: Taking Your Pain to the Cross
Section 3: Adding the Roof - Moving towards Reconciliation
- Forgiveness
- Anger
- Identificational Repentance - Standing in the Gap
- Pronouncing Blessing
- Conclusion
Appendix
- Understanding Trauma and Bereavement
- Healing Inner Wounds
- Ministering to People with Special Needs
- Scripture Compilations
- Recommended Reading
Different Ethnic Groups - a blessing or a curse?
"Was it God's plan that we would belong to different ethnic groups with different characteristics and cultures? I believe it was. Acts 17:26 tells us that from one man (or blood) He made all ethnic groups to live in different parts of the world at different times. (The word for 'nations' in the New Testament is always the word 'ethos' which means people groups, not nations as we know them today.) God, in His wisdom, modified some of our physical features (e.g. skin colour, hair thickness) to be adapated to the environment of the part of the world He had chosen for us. We are different but we are of equal value in God's sight. (Ac 10:34-35; Ro 2:11, 10:12). When He created, God had no favourites.
Here are some of the reasons why He divided us into many ethnic and cultural groups:
- The nature of the Godhead is unity in diversity, and we are made in God's image.
- God loves diversity! We can see this in creation. Look at all the variety in nature - all the different kinds of flowers and leaves - all the different shades of green! Even every snowflake is different! This shows us God's nature, and invisible qualities. (Ro 1:20).
- God's glory is so vast that no single people group could reveal it. So God put a special treasure into every ethnic group, intending that they develop their uniqueness. Each people group becomes one facet of a huge magnificent diamond. See Rev. 21:24-26. The words used here are 'splendour', the glory and honour of the nations (nations = ethnos or ethnic groups). His plan is to have people from every tribe, language and nation to enrich Heaven (Ps 22:27-28; Ps 86:9; Da 7:14; Rev 5:9-10; 7:9).
- God understands our need to belong. Every human being is asking, "Who am I? What is my value? Where do I belong?" In the African tradition one finds one's identity is relation to other people, and especially from the tribal group. If we were all from the same group, it would be much harder to develop a sense of identity and belonging.
- God's plan was that we would all love, appreciate, respect and enjoy one another, considering others as better than ourselves (Ro 12:10; Eph 5:21; Php 2:3; IPe 2:17). He wanted us to see each other as a source of enrichment and greater blessing for our lives." pg. 12-13