‘Today the long-awaited tide of history flows toward the non-white races. Those tides will lift burdens of the centuries and wipe out blood stains in the sands of time. Be sure that tide elevates all humanity,’ said Peter Howard.

Next month marks the centenary of the birth (20 December) of a man to whom I owe much of my journalism and my faith. He was to me the living example of the power of God to transform even the most unlikely person. He was an inspiration to thousands of young people, particularly in the United States.

From Children: the Invisible Victims of War published in October 2008 by DSM‘The boat on which I crossed was one of those in which England was sending children to Canada. The scene on deck was touching and amazing. A thousand children were at play in the sun around the guns that protected them. Three warships escorted us.

I once mentioned Sadie Patterson's name to Nobel Peace Prize winner Betty Williams when I was interviewing her for Oregon Public Broadcasting. She responded, ‘O, you mean our Saidie.’ For Saidie was regarded as the mother of the peace movement in Northern Ireland. And, as her biographer, David Bleakley, said at her funeral, ‘An Ireland full of Saidies would be an island at peace.’

It is not often that prime ministers or former prime ministers or coup leaders ask for forgiveness for their actions. Though their opponents may often call on them to apologize.

Frank Buchman believed that peace depended on new motives in people, that hatreds needed to be answered as he had found them answered in his own life.

The following article appeared in The Pomfret Times in Connecticut (June 2008) headlined ‘Rectory School hosted British children during World War II’.
Michael Henderson returns after 60 years to speak to Rectory School students.

Chapter three of Forgiveness: Breaking the Chain of HateThese are the words Fiona gave in evidence before an Australian Royal Commission, describing her abduction from her mother. She was not to see her again until 1968: “When I finally met my mother through an interpreter she said that she had heard about the other children, but because my name had been changed she’d never heard about me.”

It was one of the saddest phrases I have heard in a long time. A new woman has just moved into our street. We welcomed her with coffee parties and introductions to local groups and the like. The neighbor on one side was very friendly. The newcomer approached the woman on the other side. She was rebuffed with the words, ‘I don’t do neighbors.’

I have been asked how I come to be writing books about forgiveness.