Border
Meeting, 28th – 30th September 2001
A group
of nearly 50 Quakers from Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic,
France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, the United
Kingdom, and the United States of America met this weekend close
to the border of France and Belgium. We united with this statement.
We
have been thinking about the processes of transforming situations
of conflict and how the energy inherent in conflict can be channelled
in constructive ways. In order to do this we need to revise our
understanding of conflict and work on actively listening to the
concerns of others.
We
have been shocked by the events of the 11th September 2001. We have
asked ourselves why these have moved us more profoundly than other
disasters of recent years, and struggled to find an adequate response.
We pray that the depth of our emotion can be used as a catalyst
for lasting change.
We
hope that the feelings of anger, fear and sadness arising from this
tragedy can be understood and that we can also try to understand
the circumstances from which these events arose. We urge that you
engage in dialogue with all peoples, listen to their needs and be
imaginative as to how we together can use this opportunity to create
a more peaceful and equal world.
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