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Tag: Peace and Reconciliation

Cultivating peace by listening

Written by Ness Ma (Communications Officer) We had all wished for peace in the world when we were young, but as we grew up, we let go of this thought, and it began to fade out. We all experience how brutal reality is and realise how powerless we are. As a result, we could only watch relationships break when people cannot mutually understand each other. Tony, our colleague, encountered these issues as he participated in the Cultivating Peace scheme collaborated by CEDAR Fund and the Centre for Sino-Christian Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University. ‘Cultivating peace’ is an act of exploring the best way to make peace in Hong Kong through active listening, emotional caring, and non-violent methods.

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THE LETTER FROM CEDAR | OCT 2021

Dear supporters, The ten poorest countries in the world today mainly lie in Africa. They have been suffering from civil wars, political instability, or internecine strife and hatred for many years. All these undermined their capacities to develop societies sustainably. As a result, despite years of international aid, these countries and their economies remain fragile. Some of the CEDAR’s projects are located in conflict regions, such as Afghanistan and Myanmar. CEDAR Fund supports local partners and church organisations to run development projects in these regions, hoping that the residents can acquire essential skills and knowledge to find resources for their basic needs regardless of any circumstances. For example, we have been implementing peace and reconciliation projects in Lebanon,

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‘This generation doesn’t want sectarianism’ – Lebanon’s Interfaith Dialogue Project

Written by Edward Lai (Senior Communications Officer) ‘We are all a pair of hands. Even though we come from different backgrounds – be it Christianity, Sunni or Shia Islam, or Druze – we take to the streets to serve this place together. This generation doesn’t want sectarianism. We are Lebanon. And we will build Lebanon again!’ These were the words of Mohamad, a Lebanese beneficiary of CEDAR’s relief project. Despite having lost his right foot in an accident, Mohamad picked up a broom, steered his own wheelchair, and swept rubble and debris off the streets of Beirut with his son after Lebanon’s capital had suffered a catastrophic explosion at its port in the August of 2020. Mohamad’s actions

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Cultivating Peace in Hong Kong

Written by Edward Lai (Senior Communications Officer) He is a professor, wearing various hats of administrative management in university. Although he is a busy bee, he always spends time listening to youngsters’ desires and struggles. Regarding the recent unprecedented socio-political changes in Hong Kong, he believes that there are still many things to do for the common good, and more companions are needed for collaborations. When we asked about his goal in the next ten years, he responded without a second thought that it must be cultivating the value of peacebuilding in communities. It is ‘cultivating’ because peace cannot be built in one day but years. It is ‘building’ because peace is not given but built by people,

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The Righteous will Live by Faith

Written by Dr. Kwok Wai Luen (Associate Professor of the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Hong Kong Baptist University) For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’ Romans 1:17 When I was a relatively new believer, I would sometimes come across this saying in Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11: “The righteous will live by faith”. Seeing that Paul taught the relationship between the law and God’s grace, I always thought this particular verse was quite obviously about being saved by grace through faith. However, I later came to realise that Paul’s words were actually an

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CONTINUALLY INSPIRED, UNCHANGING MISSION

Written by: Edward Lai  (Senior Communications Officer) A Haitian woman sits on the floor beside several circular mud cakes. She rubs pieces of dust off the mud cakes, and slowly puts the cakes into her mouth, chewing slowly. To her, and to many other Haitians living in poverty, these cakes – made by mixing mud with water and salt, kneading the mixture into the shape of a cake, and setting the cakes under the sun to dry – were their daily meals; their life-saving meals. Our founders, Mr and Mrs Oliver Mark, were deeply touched by the sight of women eating mud cakes. They were in the UK at the time; after returning to Hong Kong, they were

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Reconciliation towards an Authentic Community

Written by: Bernard Wong (Assistant Professor (Theological Studies) and Associate Dean of China Graduate School of Theology, Board Member of CEDAR Fund) Scripture reading: Revelation 7:9-12 Genesis described the diverse and rich world God created, and the future will be even more abundant. The apostle John was shown a vision concerning Christ’s second coming, “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb…” (Revelation 7:9) From the beginning of the world, God commanded human beings to be fruitful and increase in number, giving rise to different nationalities and languages. The eschatological vision brings us several

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‘Give You this Calf as a Mark of Reconciliation’ – Road to Reconciliation after the Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda

Written by: Edward Lai  (Senior Communications Officer) “I give you this calf as a mark of reconciliation” says Innocent, a survivor in the genocide in Rwanda. He scrubbed the calf’s body with grass, held the rope tied to the neck, and handed it to the “new master” – the one who had tried to kill him with a machete along with other mobs. There are still many clearly visible scars on his face. Among them, there are two cross-shaped scars on the left cheek, one extending from the forehead down to the nostril, and the other from the cheekbones to the right side of the nose. When he lowered his head, there were also many scars come from

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The Real Meaning Behind ‘Seventy-Seven Times’

Written by: Bernard Wong (Assistant Professor (Theological Studies) and Associate Dean of China Graduate School of Theology, Board Member of CEDAR Fund) If a Christian has been wronged, other believers often encourage her to offer forgiveness immediately, for Jesus teaches us to “forgive a brother seventy-seven times.” We may think that a good Christian should endure unfair treatment, and ought to be forgiving under all circumstances. Did Jesus really mean that? “Seventy-seven times” is Jesus’ response to Peter’s question – “How many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me?”(Matt 18:21-22) However, in the previous passage, Jesus had just discussed the situation of “if your brother sins against you”. Therefore, “seventy-seven times” must be

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Environment Protection: All about Love and Justice

Banner image taken in Kurigram District of northern Bangladesh Written by Tony Chan (Senior Partnership Development Officer) Friends asked me, “Your organisation (CEDAR Fund) is for poverty alleviation. Why does it actively promote environment protection?” This is closely related to CEDAR’s understanding of poverty. We believe that poverty is resulted from an impaired relationship. In the beginning of creation, relationships between man and God, man and man, and man and nature were good. However, man sinned and disobeyed God, and even exploited others and the nature for their own benefits. Those who were exploited became the poor. In Kurigram District, north of Bangladesh, desertification is severe and many farms have been vanished and covered by sands and dusts,

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