Title: Redeeming the past
Description: In 1990, Fr. Michael Lapsley, an Anglican priest and monastic from New Zealand, exiled to Zimbabwe because of his anti-apartheid work in South Africa, opened a package and was immediately struck by the blast of an explosion. The bomb suspected to be the work of the apartheid-era South African secret police blasted away both his hands and one of his eyes. His memoir tells the story of this horrendous event, backing up to recount the journey that led him there particularly his rising awareness of the radical social implications of the gospel and his identification with the liberation struggle and then the subsequent journey of the last two decades. Returning to South Africa, Lapsley saw a whole nation damaged by the apartheid era. So he discovered his new vocation to become a wounded healer, drawing on his own experience to promote the healing of other victims of violence and trauma. As he writes, My visible brokenness creates a bond with others whose brokenness is often less visible but just as real. The truth is that pain unites human beings. In my work as a healer, many people say they can trust me because I know pain. In the end, though, what matters most is whether we are able to transform pain into a life-giving force. --AMAZON.COM BOOK DESCRIPTION.
Subjects: Pain, Church history, Christianity, Suffering, Clergy, Church work, Church of the Province of Southern Africa, Biography, Politiker, Aktivist, Religious aspects, Terrorism, Apartheid, Anti-apartheid activists, Forgiveness
Places: Africa
People: Michael Lapsley
Time periods: 20th century