[Vredeslijst] 9 Nov: Global Grace Day & Pilgrimage for Peace Community in Colombia

[Malika Cieremans]

Beste,

elk jaar wordt op 9 november op plaatsen overal ter wereld Global Grace 
Day gehouden, een dag om je te verbinden met de wens dat er een einde 
komt aan het geweld in de wereld, en actief bij te dragen dat er weer 
plaatsen op aarde ontstaan, waar vrede gelééfd wordt.

Hieronder is een bericht van een groep van 130 mensen uit vele landen 
van Europa, uit Israel-Palestina en Noord- en Zuidamerikaanse landen, 
die op dit moment als pelgrims verblijven in Bogota, Colombia. Ze zijn 
daar om erkenning en bescherming te vragen voor de Peace Community San 
José de Apartado, als voorbeeld van een model voor een toekomst zonder 
oorlog. Deze Peace Community is een groep van meer dan 1.000 bergboeren 
die zich aaneengesloten hebben om een geweldvrije gemeenschap op te 
bouwen. Midden in het oorlogsgebied waarin ze zich bevinden, waar ze 
dagelijks bedreigd worden door guerilla's, paramilitairen en 
regeringssoldaten, bouwen ze aan een alternatief: een toekomst in 
vertrouwen en verbondenheid met elkaar.

Beste groet,
Malika Cieremans


/*
----------------------
GLOBAL GRACE DAY, 9th OF NOVEMBER 2010 */

*ENDING VIOLENCE – CREATING MODELS FOR PEACE *


“/Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” Victor Hugo /


We are on a pilgrimage for a future without war. We do not come in the 
name of a religion or an ideology, but in the name of GRACE – in service 
of reconciliation, opening and support. We are part of a global movement 
for a free earth, which bears no flag nor does it belong to any 
organisation. Instead it grows from the international solidarity and 
cooperation of all those who are today determined to leave the system of 
violence and to create models for a new culture of peace.


The current economic system of globalisation uproots the whole humanity 
from its anchor. The ecological and military destruction in the outside 
corresponds to a boundless misery inside the human being. Humans develop 
in a way which separates them from their home and original embedding in 
the world. Values of truth, trust and mutual support are destroyed.


The destruction of community caused a deep wound in the human 
civilisation. This results in the wars of our time, which are waged in a 
feverish frenzy of killing and destruction. We can no longer overcome 
the globalisation of violence by moral appeals or political protests. We 
need places where the original wound of humanity is healed utilizing a 
model where living systems are developed which reconnect with the 
original values and the universal source of community on a new level.


The Peace Research Village Tamera in Portugal is such a place. Here 
social, ecological and technological research compiles into a concrete 
vision for a future life. To carry the results of this research into the 
world and to connect it with other initiatives, the “Global Campus“ was 
created. It is a kind of world university with bases on all continents 
in which the basis for a global peace culture is researched, learned and 
applied.


Today, we set examples of solidarity with all courageous human beings, 
whose lives are threatened daily, who are persecuted and imprisoned, 
because they speak the truth and work for peace. In particular, we 
dedicate this day to the Colombian peace community San José de Apartadó, 
a rural community of 1500 inhabitants living in the North of the 
country, who are severely threatened. The community came together 13 
years ago in order to create an alternative of peace. Since then they 
have not cooperated with any of the armed groups, they do not tolerate 
any weapons and they are connected in an unswerving ethics of peace. 
However, the peace community is subjected to massive persecution. In the 
last 13 years they lost almost 200 members who were killed by the 
military, paramilitary and guerilla. In the mass media, they are accused 
of cooperating with the guerrillas and are depicted as terrorists.


The international community, on the contrary, appreciates the commitment 
of the peace community very much. In 2007 they were awarded the Aachen 
Peace Price and nominated for the Nobel Peace Price. We know that the 
slanders are not justified. Colombia should be proud of such a 
courageous and internationally acknowledged initiative. By now the peace 
community has become a symbol of hope for the numerous suppressed and 
threatened forces in the country – and far beyond its borders.


In order to support them, an international peace pilgrimage in the name 
of Grace is taking place at the moment in the Colombian capital Bogotá, 
led by Sabine Lichtenfels (Tamera, Portugal) and Padre Javier Giraldo 
(Bogotá).


The power of community that we have seen and experienced in San José not 
only gives an answer to the situation in suppressed countries, but it 
concerns all of us, because we have all forgotten what it means to live 
in community, solidarity and charity. In addition to the open violence 
in the crisis areas of the world there is the – mostly hidden – human 
misery in the Western societies which all live on the exploitation and 
suppression of the poor countries. We are all equally challenged to 
again understand and embrace the power of community in its essence as a 
global source of healing. Today all over Latin America and in other 
parts of the world the forces of a profound change are sprouting. The 
creation of models for peace could now become the trigger of a powerful, 
non-violent revolution – a revolution without losers.


We invite you: Support these models, so that they become known and 
therefore get the protection they need. Support them, so that the truth 
about San José becomes known. Help to save lives. On the 9th of November 
we are coming together for the “Global Grace Day”: People from all over 
the world will connect in solidarity with this growing movement in South 
America and in other parts of this planet. We thank everyone who takes 
part in it. The sacred matrix, the universal order of love and union of 
all beings, still shines behind all the pain. The goal of our work is to 
connect worldwide with the powers of the sacred matrix and to make a new 
human civilization possible.


May the blessings of God rest upon our work! In the name of our children 
and in the name of all creatures.

GRACE – Movement for a Free Earth


More information:

Movement for a Free Earth • Tamera

Monte do Cerro • P-7630 Colos, Portugal

Ph: +351-283 635 484 • Fax: +351-283 635 374

Email: igp op tamera.org • www.global-grace-day.com


Contactpersoon in het Nederlands: Malika Cieremans (alchemilla op malika.info)