For A Change articles from October 1997

For A Change archives from October 1997

Time to bury the illusions.
October 1, 1997... Looking back to Princess Diana's tragic death and the amazing events which followed, what can we discern? What inner chords were being plucked in so many of us with such resonance? A tragic end to a fairy tale, heavy with might-have-beens; a...

Making the soul dance: Betsy Lancaster takes part in a conference `for all who long to discover the creative sparkle within' - and finds manifestations in unexpected places.
October 1, 1997... The hills were alive with the sound of music--and poetry and prayer; acting, dancing and painting; baking and puppet-making; and much more. For one warm week in August, people from all over the world gathered at Mountain House, Caux, MRA's...

Freedom and the artist: Ernest Neizvestny - carver of Khrushchev's tombstone and sculptor of two massive memorials to Stalin's victims - talks to Peter Thwaites.
October 1, 1997... Before the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev died in 1971, he asked for his tombstone to be carved by Ernst Neizvestny, the prominent sculptor who had dared to stand up against his attacks on contemporary art nine years earlier. The two men...

Security of having nothing to lose: six days of the summer at Caux were devoted to a conference on `the life of faith', which was addressed by the Russian poet Irina Ratushinskaya.
October 1, 1997... Six days of the summer at Caux were devoted to a conference on `The life of faith', which was addressed by the Russian poet Irina Ratushinskaya. She told the conference why she had felt closer to God in a Soviet labour camp than she did in...

Jewish refugees of World War II remembered at Caux.
October 1, 1997... The historic Christian-Jewish rift in Europe was `one of the deepest and darkest of European society' and needed healing on a deep enough level, Rabbi Dr Marc Gopin, a professor at George Mason University, Washington DC, said at Caux. He was...

Global economy needs values says top trade unionist.
October 1, 1997... It was a stirring plea from the world's most senior trade unionist. Bill Jordan, General Secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), representing 125 million trade unionists in 137 countries, called for morality...

Japanese show way to healing: Kenneth Noble attended a session of the Caux conference which was part of an on-going `agenda for reconciliation'.
October 1, 1997... People from many of the world's troubled areas met in Caux from 14-20 August on the theme, `Healing the past, forging the future--dialogues towards justice and reconciliation'. The hope was that, rather than burden each other with their...

South Africa: building the rainbow nation.
October 1, 1997... Prof Piet Meiring, a member of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, spoke of the importance of the nation taking `ownership of the truth and reconciliation process' if the Commission's aims were to be realized. It was vital,...

Call for islands of integrity in a sea of corruption.
October 1, 1997... A vigorous call for the creation of `islands of integrity to combat global corruption was given at the opening of the Caux Conference for Business and Industry in July. `For a long time we in the West thought that corruption was...

Sarajevo in war and peace.
October 1, 1997... When I made my first journalistic trip to the lands of former Yugoslavia, I was trying to understand what had happened, why the war had broken out there. I sought the answer in three years of journeying (1992-1995) through Serbia, Croatia,...

Germans and Czechs walk the road of reconciliation: earlier this year the presidents of Germany and the Czech Republic won the European Statesman Awards of the Institute for EastWest Studies.
October 1, 1997... Not long ago the idea that unhealed wounds of history could determine the relations between peoples or countries would only have caused raised eyebrows. Today it has become almost fashionable to go back in history whenever a problem between...

Turkey unveiled - Ataturk and after.
October 1, 1997... Turkey unveiled--Ataturk and after by Nicole and Hugh Pope John Murray, London, [pounds sterling] 25 Did you know that the Great Wall of China was probably built to keep out the marauding ancestors of the present-day Turks? Or that Shah...

God, family and sexuality.
October 1, 1997... God, family and sexuality edited by David W Torrance The Handsel Press, Carberry, Scotland, [pounds sterling] 9.95 paperback This book is the result of a study group set up by the Scottish Order of Christian Unity, a body of Christians of...

Out of the blue.
October 1, 1997... Anders Eskeland was born and brought up on a small farm on an island off the west coast of Norway. His parents were hardworking but poor. Their highest wish was a good education for their children. There was little talk of God at home, and it...

US Army explodes stereotypes.
October 1, 1997... In 1961, after his obligatory service, Colin Powell could have left the US Army. He didn't, the General writes in his autobiography, My American Journey, because `for a black no other avenue in American society offered so much opportunity'. ...

When the best is broken.
October 1, 1997... In my walk of faith I had for a long time thought that, in order to deny myself and follow God, the `ungodly' in me must die and the good must triumph. It never struck me as a Christian that to share the suffering of Christ, the `good' or...

Switzerland opens the books on the past.
October 1, 1997... Last summer, along with many of my compatriots, I took part in the 50th anniversary celebrations of the MRA conference centre at Caux. The event, supported by so many people from around the world, made me feel proud to be Swiss. The...